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THE WAR, 1915 



III 



TO 

ILL 




BRITIHH 'J ROUPS l.F.AVlNLi FOK THli FKOjMT 
Drawiug by Septimus E Scott 




HE WAR, 1915 

% 3^i0torg anb an Cjcplanation 

FOR BOYS AND GIRLS 



BY ELIZABETH O'NEILL, M.A. 

AUTHOR OP "THK WORLD'S 8T0RT," BTa 




A CONTINUATION OF 



A^'D 



Cije aiHar, I9i4-i5 



NEW YORK 

FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 






NOV 24 my 



PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



3 

I 

1? 

CONTENTS 

CHAP. PAGE 

I. GREAT BATTLES IN FLANDERS ..... I 
II. THE HEROISM OF FRANCE 1 6 

III. THE FIERCE STRUGGLE ON THE RUSSIAN FRONT . 26 

IV. EGYPT AND THE TURKS 37 

V. FIGHTING IN THE PERSIAN GULF . . . .48 

VI. THE STRUGGLE FOR THF DARDANELLES . . -55 

VII. THE WAR OF THE SUBMARINES . . . ,67 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



COLOURED PLATES 
British Troop Train leaving for the Front . . Frontispiece J 

Drawing by Septinms E. Scott 

French Troops (Zouaves and Turcos) driven back 

BY Poison Gas Facing page 14 / 

Drawn by Joh^i de G. G' Bryan 

Russian Troops guarding a Railway .... ,» >. 26^, 

After the Black and White Drawing by H. W. Koekoek 

An Action between a British Cruiser and a German 

Submarine » » 70y' 

Drawing by A, Chevallier Taylcr 

BLACK AND WHITE PLATES AND MAPS 

The Seat of War in the Turkish Empire .... Page ix ./ 

Map of the Dardanelles and other Approaches to 

Constantinople „ x • 

The Capture of the Village of Neuve Chapelle by 

the British, March 10, 1915 Facing page 7 

Drawiitg by F. de Haenen 

The Canadian Scottish and ioth Infantry retaki- 

the Guns at Ypres ... ... „ „ 11 ^ 

Drawing by R. Caion Woodville 

Germans surrendering to the French at Notre 

Dame de Lorette, March 15, 1915 . . . „ „ 18 ^ 

From a Photograph 

The French attacking after exploding a Land- 
mine „ „ 22 

Drawing by F. Villiers 

vi: 



Vlll 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Close Trench Fighting at the Village of La Bois- 

SELLE, NEAR ALBERT Facing ^age 

Drawing by F. Villi ers 

A German Battery overwhelmed by an Onslaught 

OF Russia's most dreaded Cavalry ... „ „ 

Drawing by J, Simont 

Russian Infantry and Artillery defending War- 
saw AT the Battle of the Bzura 



An Austrian Supply-Train at the Foot of the 
Carpathians 



The Turks try to cross the Suez Canal — The Metai 
Pontoons destroyed by British Guns . 
Drawing by R. Caion Woodville 

The British and French Fleets advancing to the 
Attack of the Dardanelles 

(' TopicaV Photo) 

A Modern Battleship firing a Broadside , 

Drawing by Charles J. de Lacy 

The Navy's 'Wild Ducks': An Air Raid on the 
Belgian Coast 



25 y 
29 "^ 

32 
36/ 

39/ 
54 / 

J 



THE WAR, 1915 

CHAPTER I 
GREAT BATTLES IN FLANDERS 

Perhaps the most interesting part of the Great War in the 
West at the end of 19 14 was the fighting in Flanders. The 
terrible fighting, and the brave deeds in the battle for the 
coast, will never be forgotten. For months after the great 
struggle round Ypres, the two fronts stretched along the same 
line, hardly moving at all. And the same thing went on 
right along the whole western front, which stretched from 
the coast in Flanders for 500 miles to the Swiss frontier. 
Everyone felt that the generals were waiting for the spring, 
when the fighting would be fiercer than ever. But this does 
not mean that there was no fighting at all. No one knew 
at what moment the enemy might open artillery fire on any 
part of the line. 

One writer who was at the front wrote to the papers that 
the artillery duel was almost like a game in some parts of 
the field. When the German batteries began to shell the 
British trenches, the order was given for the artillery to aim 
at certain places on the German line. It had been noticed 
that the Germans always stopped firing when these special 
places were attacked. 

Then a great deal of " sniping " went on, when single 
soldiers from good positions, such as a house or a windmill 
or barn, would " pick off " and shoot any officer or man who 
let his head appear above the enemy's trenches. Then, too, 
there was a great deal of " sapping " — digging tunnels through 



2 THE WAR, 1915 

to undermine the enemy's tFcnches. When these were 
safely reached, they were generally blown up. The soldiers, 
even if they were not fighting, had plenty of hard work to 
do. Often men were sent out at night to dig trenches 
quite near the enemy's sentries. Then there were the 
terrible barbed wire " entanglements," which were so much 
used in the war, to make and mend. The water which lay 
in the trenches from the great rains of that very wet winter 
had to be taken out, and the trenches had to be strengthened 
in places where it seemed that the earth would fall in. 

All through the winter the British army was occupying 
very low and swampy positions, while the Germans facing 
them occupied fairly high and healthy ground. Not only 
were the British hampered a great deal by fogs and mists, 
but there was a very great danger of sickness to troops 
spending the winter months in such country. But there 
was, after all, very little sickness. The sanitary arrange- 
' ments of the British army were excellent, and the doctors 
worked splendidly to cure sickness, and, better still, to pre- 
vent it. The work of the doctors in attending to the sick 
and wounded during the war cannot be praised enough. 

Towards the end of January there was some fierce fight- 
ing along the line near Givenchy (a village standing on an 
important ridge of land held by the British) and La Bassee. 
which the Germans still held. On the 25th the Germans 
m.ade a sharp attack on the English along this line. They 
managed to cross the front trenches, and some of their 
infantry got into the village itself. In the narrow village 
street there was terrible fighting. The English, angry at the 
taking of their trenches, fought their best, and soon 100 
Germans were killed by the bayonet. Still the Germans 
attacked time after time, and this " hafid-to-hand " fighting 
went on for hours. At the end of the day the British had 
won all their positions back. A story was told afterwards 
of how one English soldier broke into a house where there 
were eight Germans, killed four, and took the rest prisoners, 



GREAT BATTLES IN FLANDERS 3 

while all the time he was sucking a clay pipe. It was told 
too, how, in the bombardment before the infantry attack, a 
piece of railway line weighing 25 lb. was thrown a mile by 
the bursting of a shell. It fell near some soldiers, but did 
not hurt anybody. 

South of the canal at La Bassee there was fierce fighting 
too on this day, in a district covered with brickfields. Some 
ground was lost by the British, but it was nearly all won 
back. The little ground the Germans won was not worth 
the loss of their men; for in the fighting of this day they 
had lost a thousand men. 

Some people thought that this attack was made by the 
Germans on the 25th, so that the Kaiser might have good 
news for his birthday, on the 27th January. But there was 
no good news for him after all. On that day, indeed, the 
British blew up a house at Messines, which must have con- 
tained bombs, for when it caught fire there was explosion 
after explosion. The soldiers thought it was a splendid 
bonfire for the Kaiser's birthday. On the 29th January, 
the Germans made an attack in this part of the line, and 
won some trenches for a time. But the British took these 
back, and killed every German in them. Once more the 
Germans lost great numbers of men. Again, on the 7th 
February, the Germans made a counter-attack in this part 
of the line, but were beaten back, and for many weeks after- 
wards there was no fighting there. The men had to bear 
one of those long periods of waiting which seem much worse 
than real fighting. 

Another part of the line in which there was some fierce 
fighting in the early months of 19 15 was the district near 
Ypres. No one can forget the terrible struggle for Ypres 
in the autumn of 19 14, when the Germans were trying to 
force their way to the coast. In the end Ypres, although it 
was a mass of ruins, remained in the hands of the British. 
The Germans, however, still held the high land to the east. 
Ypres itself lies low, and to the north and north-west of it 



4 THE WAR, 191 5 

stretches the plain through which the river Yser runs to the 
sea. The beautiful old town was still shelled from time to 
time, even so late as the month of May, when each evening 
some shells were sure to be thrown from the German 
trenches. The soldiers in Ypres called it the Germans' " Even- 
ing Hate." (People in England had been very much amused at 
a picture by a clever artist in Punch showing a German family 
at their " Morning Hate.") In the fighting south-east of 
Ypres in the months of February and March, it was the 
British who attacked while the Germans merely defended 
themselves. The British bombarded Messines, whose beau- 
tiful old church had been almost destroyed by the Germans 
when they bombarded, and took the town in November. 
The old tower still stood in spite of all the shells and bombs 
which had struck it. This shows how splendidly built the 
old churches of Belgium were, and made people hope that 
there would still be many of these beautiful buildings left, 
when the Germans should be driven across the Rhine, and 
Belgium should belong to the Belgians again. 

For many reasons the great new " offensive " which the 
Allied Armies were expected to take in the spring was delayed. 
But all through the first half of the year, both British and 
French were steadily attacking certain points in the long 
line, which it was important to weaken before the great 
" offensive " movement should begin. This steady attack 
on these points (which often overlooked important railways), 
has been called General Joffre's " nibbling." 

But though the great offensive was delayed, a very impor- 
tant attack was made by the British early in March, when 
news came to England of the wonderful and terrible battle 
of Neuve Chapelle. It was the greatest battle on the western 
front since the battle of the Marne. 

Neuve Chapelle is a village south of Ypres and west of 
Lille, and lies on two important roads. It had been taken 
by the Germans some months before, and at this point the 
British line was bent inwards. Sir John French decided to 



GREAT BATTLES IN FLANDERS 5 

attack Neuve Chapelle in great force early in March. If 
the British took it their line would be straightened out, and 
this is always a good thing. There were other reasons for 
making a big attack, as Sir John French tells in the despatch 
describing the battle. There was fierce fighting on the 
Eastern front at this time, and it seemed that so many German 
troops had been sent against the Russians that the German 
line in the West must be weakened. This, therefore, was 
a good time to attack it. Then, on the other hand, a strong 
attack in the West would probably help the Russians, as the 
Germans might be forced to send troops from that front to 
the West again. The Allies all through the war tried to help 
each other in this way. But the chief reason which made 
Sir John French anxious for a real fight was that he wanted 
to encourage his men after the long weary months of winter, 
during which they had had little chance to fight. If Sir 
John French had any doubts about the spirit and courage 
of his men, he soon had reason to see that they were as keen 
and brave as ever. 

The British attack on Neuve Chapelle was splendidly 
thought out and arranged beforehand, and at first every- 
thing happened just as Sir John French expected. Afterwards 
some mistakes were made, and, though the British won Neuve 
Chapelle, they did not do all that Sir John French had hoped. 
But whatever fault there was, it was not in the courage of 
the men, for they fought like heroes. 

General French had a wonderful plan of battle. He had 
told it, in the greatest secrecy, to Sir Douglas Haig three 
weeks before. Sir Douglas Haig was now at the head of 
the I St Army, and had been moved from the end of the 
British line near Ypres to this other end at Neuve Chapelle. 
The ist Army was to take the chief part in the attack, but 
was to be supported by the 2nd Army under Sir Horace 
Smith-Dorrien. 

The right of the attacking line was held by the Indians. 
Tp the centre and left were British regiments of regulars 



6 THE WAR, 191 5 

and Territorials. Tlie attack was to be made on the morning 
of the loth March, and the troops were moved quietly up to 
their positions during the night. Early in the morning, the 
guns began to roar, for an attack always begins with firing. 
But there was something extraordinary about the booming 
of the guns in front of Neuve Chapelle. The roar was 
deafening and terrific, for orders had been given that great 
numbers of guns should be got together to shoot fast and 
furiously. The work of the guns was to kill as many as 
possible of the Germans in the trenches before the charge 
forward was made. But they had, too, to break down the 
immensely strong barbed wire entanglements which the 
Germans had stretched along the line. In the gaps between 
the barbed wire fences, machine guns stood ready to fire 
their terrible quick shots. The British could not advance 
until the barbed wire was shot down, for neither cavalry nor 
infantry are of much use against these terrible defences. 

As the war had gone on, the French and British had 
become more and more superior in artillery to the Germans, 
but never before had so many guns been ranged along so 
small a line. The German trenches were only 70 or 80 
yards away from the British, and in a very short time most 
of the men were killed or wounded. It was said afterwards 
that the noise of the British guns was like that made by some 
" gigantic machine gun " shooting without a pause. So 
overcome were the Germans that they made no attempt to 
answer the British fire. For the half-hour during which the 
artillery attack lasted, the men in the British line could walk 
about quite without danger. 

Then the firing stopped, and in the sudden silence the 
order was given to charge. But the silence was short, for 
the guns now boomed forth again, shooting now no longer 
at the trenches, but at Neuve Chapelle itself. 

In the greater part of the line of trenches, the British 
attack was hardly resisted. The trenches themselves had 
been churned up by the terrific fire, and dead and dying lay 



GREAT BATTLES IN FLANDERS 7 

half buried in the soft earth. The overpowering smell of 
powder and exploded shell hung over everything. The few 
Germans who remained unhurt could not run, for behind 
them the shells were falling thick and fast on Neuve Chapelle. 
Most of them were quite glad to give themselves up as 
prisoners, but even now some of the officers could not bear 
to give in. Two of them went on working a machine gun, 
although they knew that they must die if they would not 
give themselves up. They preferred to die, and worked their 
guns until they fell. 

So far all had gone well for the British — at least, on the 
centre and right of the line. The centre pressed forward 
to fight in Neuve Chapelle itself, while the Indians to the 
right pushed forward, past the village to the forest of Biez, 
which lay beyond it. But a terrible thing had happened to 
the left of the line. Here the barbed wire fences had not 
been properly broken down by the guns, and when the charge 
was made the men dashed upon these trying to break their 
way through while the Germans turned their machine-guns 
upon them, firing their 660 shots a minute. The Middlesex 
Regiment, and the Scottish Rifles suffered terrible losses, but 
dashed again and again against the wire. Through the 
cutting of telephone wires and other communications, it was 
a long time before a message could be sent to the artillery 
to tell what had happened. But at last, it did get through. 
The infantry were drawn back while the guns turned again 
on to the barbed wire, and this time broke it down com- 
pletely. 

Meanwhile, Germans and British were fighting hand 
to hand in the streets of Neuve Chapelle. Once again the 
British guns were throwing a shower of shells beyond the 
village, so that fresh German troops could not be brought 
up to help to defend the town. In Neuve Chapelle many 
Germans gave themselves up, but those who could find 
shelter in the houses half-ruined by the guns fought hard, 
shooting from windows and roofs. After desperate fighting, 
III B 



8 THE WAR, 1915 

the town, although almost a heap of ruins, was won by the 
British. It was told how, above the mass of dust and brick 
and stone, two great crucifixes still stood, one in the church- 
yard, and one near the chateau. 

One reason for which Sir John French had wished to take 
Neuve Chapelle was to gain possession of the high ridge of 
land beyond it, from which a new attack might be made, and 
a big advance made towards the important town of Lille. 
If Lille were taken, the Germans' communication by rail 
would be interrupted at an important point. Neuve Chapelle 
was taken before mid-day, and a farther advance should have 
been made at once before the Germans had time to reform. 
This was Sir John French's plan, and Sir Douglas Haig had 
given orders for this to be done. But some mistake was made 
in the carrying out of the orders, and several hours passed before 
the advance was actually made. The Germans had time to 
form up and bring up reinforcements on the Aubers ridge, 
which would otherwise have been easily taken by the British. 

On the next day, nth March, the British began the attack 
again, but already the Germans had made their line very 
strong. Artillery had to be used again, but it was a foggy 
day, and the artillery officers could not see when the infantry 
had reached any point. Often they still went on shelling 
a position which had already been won by their own side. 
The only thing the infantry could do was to draw back. This 
was very hard for them, and it must be said that Sir John 
French's splendid plan had had very bad luck against it. 
Still if he did not win all he had hoped for, he did win a great 
deal. In the two days' fighting the line had been pushed 
forward for nearly a mile along a front of 2 J miles. 

This may not seem a very great gain, but we have to 
remember that the Allied armies, when they fought and won 
ground like this, were not trying to push the Germans back 
by degrees to their own land. They hoped they would go 
back very quickly indeed in the end. But these small gains 
of ground were important, first, because they raised the 



GREAT BATTLES IN FLANDERS 9 

spirit of the men. The British troops were full of spirit 
before the battle, but afterwards they were more enthusiastic 
than ever. 

The success was important too, because every victory of 
this sort, in which the Germans lost many more men than the 
Allies, made the German army weaker. In this war hardly 
anyone hoped to win any single great battle which would 
end the war, just as the battle of Waterloo ended the 
Napoleonic wars. The war would end only when one side 
had become too weak to go on with it, and each victory like 
that at Neuve Chapelle meant that the time was coming 
nearer when Germany would be too weak to fight any longer. 

On the 1 2th March, the Germans began their counter- 
attack. This always happens in modern war where the 
armies are defending important positions. When one side 
has gained ground, the side which has been pushed back 
makes a great effort to win it back, and so makes the strongest 
attack it can in return. Again, on the 12th March, the 
Germans had the weather in their favour. The British 
artillery could not see where to shoot because of the fog, 
and so the Germans were able to bring up many more men 
than they could have done if the weather had been fine. 
And when the enemy began to move forward in the close 
formation which the Germans always use, the artillery 
could not always see which were the British and which the 
German troops. Even so the German counter-attack was 
a failure. Once more great numbers were killed and 
wounded. It was told afterwards that the German officers 
had driven them to the attack with whips. Many of the 
men were quite tired out, and, though some fought bravely, 
many others held up their hands to show that they were 
willing to give themselves up as prisoners. At the end of 
the day the Germans had not been able to push the British 
back at all, and so the counter-attack came to an end. 

The British, too, were completely worn out, though the 
fact that they were winning had kept them up. During the 



lo THE WAR, 19 1 5 

next two days fresh men were sent to take the places of those 
who had been in the fighting line. Some of them were so 
worn out that they were found standing up asleep in their 
trenches. The German soldiers, and especially the officers 
at Neuve Chapelle, were very much surprised and very angry 
to find for once greater numbers of men and guns against 
them than they had themselves. One officer, who was taking 
prisoner, said that it was *' not war, but murder." He forgot 
the many fights in which the Germans had had many more 
guns and men than the Allies. The British felt especially 
pleased because the men whom they drove out of Neuve 
Chapelle belonged to the same army corps which had taken 
the village from them four and a half months before. After 
all this terrible fighting, the long straggling village looked 
like a great rubbish heap, with a part of a house still standing 
here and there. 

Two days after their first counter-attack was made, the 
Germans made another attack on the British line at the 
village of St. Eloi about two miles south of Ypres. The 
reason for this attack was that the Germans probably thought 
that this part of the line would be weaker as so many men 
had been got together at Neuve Chapelle. The attack was 
made in the late afternoon, and the British were, as the 
Germans hoped, taken by surprise. A sudden artillery attack 
was made on the trenches outside St. Eloi, and on a mound 
which ran partly round the village, and which made a 
splendid defence. The German sappers had worked hard, 
and the mound was undermined and suddenly blown up. 
Great masses of soil were thrown into the air, and as the 
Germans had hoped there was some confusion in the front 
lines. The attack had been helped by the fact that there 
was a thick mist, and the Germans had been able to prepare 
their attack without the British knowing. Parts of the first 
line of trenches were taken, and the Germans thought they 
were quite safe for the night as darkness soon came on. But 
the British did not give in so readily. More men were 



GREAT BATTLES IN FLANDERS ii 

brought quietly up, and in the pitch darkness at two o'clock 
in the morning they rushed on the part of the village and the 
lost trenches, and won them back at the point of the bayonet. 
Already, in the few hours the Germans had been in the 
village, they had put barricades defended by machine guns 
across the streets they had taken, and the fighting to break 
these down was terribly fierce. The worst fighting in the 
war was this fighting — ^almost from house to house in the 
narrow streets of the French and Belgian villages. The 
Germans tried again three days later, but could not capture 
the trenches again. 

During all this fighting the airmen, as usual, did splendid 
work. They did their usual reconnaissance work to direct 
the artillery where to shoot, and sometimes, because of the 
fog, had to fly as low as 800 feet. It is, of course, much more 
dangerous for an airman to fly low than high, because he can 
be more readily shot at by the enemy. During the fighting, 
too, they dropped bombs on the railway junctions at Don 
and Douai, which probably did a great deal of damage. 
These were important points, through which the Germans 
had to send men and supplies. Anything which delayed or 
prevented this was a great help to the Allies. On the 26th 
April British airmen destroyed the railway station at Courtrai, 
and did much damage on several railway lines. 

For a month after the fighting at Neuve Chapelle and 
St. Eloi, nothing very important happened in Flanders. 
Then the Germans became active again in the district near 
Ypres ; news came that on the 20th April they had begun a great 
attack on the French line north of Ypres. This was the part 
of the line just to the left of where the British stood. The 
attack began with a very heavy bombardment, In which 
once more the Germans broke the rules of war, and this 
time it was in a very terrible way. They brought into 
their trenches large quantities of a poisonous gas, and they 
allowed this to escape when the wind was blowing towards 
where the French stood. As the cloud of poisonous gas 



12 THE WAR, 1915 

came near, the French soldiers fell choking to the ground, 
where they lay unconscious. Some of them died from the 
effect of the gases, and all who breathed the gases were made 
dreadfully ill, and had to be in hospital for weeks. It was 
easy for the Germans to press forward when they had done 
this terrible thing, and the French had to fall back to the 
canal behind. The Germans themselves were protected by 
pads soaked in certain chemicals and tied over their noses and 
mouths. 

Afterwards the Germans said that the Allies had used 
the poisonous gases first, but this was not true. Immediately 
great numbers of respirators were sent to the front. The 
soldiers wore these over the nose and mouth, and so were 
protected to some extent against the gases, which the Germans 
went on using. The Allies felt that the only thing to do 
was to tell the Germans that they would also use these gases 
if they continued to do so, and the French soon found it 
necessary to do so. 

Not only the French, but the British who were to the 
right of them, north of Ypres, suffered from the poisonous 
gases from the German shells. Some of the brave Canadians 
who had come over from their own land to fight for the 
Mother Country were in this part of the line. When the 
French had to fall back before the horrible gases, the Canadians 
had to fall back too, leaving four 4.7-inch guns behind them. 
Good soldiers hate to lose their guns, and the Canadians made 
up their minds to win theirs back at all costs. Two days 
later, they did so after a splendid fight. The four British 
guns had been left behind in a wood, and the Canadians 
made up their minds to gain possession of the wood again. 
They made their attack at night, with the moon shining 
faintly through a mist, and, though the machine guns played 
upon them " like a watering pot,'* as one of them said, the 
Canadians fought desperately at the point of the bayonet. 
Many of them fell, killed and wounded, but the others 
pressed on, pushing the Germans back. They soon held 



GREAT BATTLES IN FLANDERS 13 

the wood, and dug themselves in at the other side. All 
night fighting was going on along the three-mile line held 
by the Canadians and the French line to their left. 

Early in the morning the Canadian left was in a very 
dangerous position, as the French lines against which the 
poisonous gases had been used had been pushed far back. It 
was decided that the Canadians should try to relieve the French, 
and make their own position better by making a counter- 
attack on the front line of German trenches. The ist and 
4th Ontario Battalions of the ist Brigade were chosen with a 
British brigade to make the attack. As soon as they began 
to go forward, a terrible shower of shot and shell fell upon 
them. The 4th Canadian Battalion especially suffered 
terribly. The guns fired full upon them from the front 
as they advanced. Every fourth man fell, and for a moment 
the line wavered as though it would fall back. But the 
brave officer commanding the battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel 
Burchill, still advanced coolly, carrying in his hand nothing 
but a light cane. This is an old fashion for officers, as though 
to show their supreme courage. The men rallied, but the 
heroic officer fell, shot dead. His men needed no further 
cheering. With a cry of anger they rushed forward to avenge 
the officer they had loved. The Germans fell back, and the 
trench was taken. It was held, too, for several days against 
attack after attack while fierce fighting went on along the 
line. The Canadians had saved not only their own left, 
but had done much to save the whole Allied line in this 
district. The Canadian soldiers have shown themselves 
brave to a fault. A German officer, writing of them, told 
how these " god-like fools,'* when ordered in one place to 
retire, refused to crawl back as experienced soldiers would 
have done, but " strolled " back laughing and smoking 
cigarettes. 

The Germans were trying their best in this new " offen- 
sive " to break the Allied line, but they failed completely. 
Although the German people still hoped for a real victory. 



14 THE WAR, 1915 

the German commanders knew that this could never be. 
As time went on, more and more advantage lay with the 
Allies. But they thought that if they could only break the 
line the Allies might make peace, and say that the war had 
resulted in a " draw " — that is, that both sides were equal. 
If they did not manage to do this they would have lost many 
men, and not gained any advantage. Germany could not 
really afford to lose men now, for she was using her last 
reserves. 

The day after the Canadians won back their guns, the 
Germans made fierce attacks on the British line at Ypres, 
but were driven back again and again. The next day the 
British made a counter-attack, and two days later the Germans 
quite stopped their attacks in this part of the line. 

But hardly a week had passed before the Germans were 
making a new attack at a part of the British lines a little 
to the south-east of Ypres. Here stood the famous " Hill 60," 
which was so much talked about at this time. The hill had, of 
course, a proper name of its own, but on the maps which 
the commanding officers used in arranging their plans it was 
just " Hill 60." There had been a great deal of fighting 
for Hill 60 throughout the winter. It was an important 
point overlooking the railway from Ypres to Comines, and 
from it gun-fire could sweep the ground a long way to the 
north. Both sides were very anxious to have the hill, and 
there was very fierce fighting there in the middle of February, 
during which, however, the Germans managed to keep their 
hold on the hill. 

On the evening of the 17th April, a Saturday, the British 
made a determined attack on the hill. The sappers had 
undermined some of the trenches where the Germans were, 
and a length of trench containing 150 men was blown up. 
Nearly all the men were killed. Immediately after the 
explosion the British rushed forward, and won 250 yards 
of trench at the point of the bayonet. The Germans were so 
taken by surprise that they hardly resisted at all, but all 



GREAT BATTLES IN FLANDERS 15 

through the night they kept firing on the lost positions, hoping 
to win them back. The British, however, dug themselves 
in deeper, and strengthened their positions as fast as they 
could. 

At seven o'clock on Sunday morning, a real counter- 
attack was made, the Germans advancing in great numbers 
and in their usual close formation. There was a great deal 
of fierce hand-to-hand fighting, and the infantry were greatly 
helped by some motor machine guns which rushed up and 
poured fire into the advancing Germans. The Germans 
lost heavily and won nothing, but all day they kept up their 
attacks. Towards evening they managed to get a position 
on the south side of the hill, but were driven off at the point 
of the bayonet. The counter-attack failed completely. The 
British had won the hill and meant to keep it. The British 
naturally lost many men in such hard and close fighting, 
but the Germans lost many more. The writer who signs 
himself *' Eye-witness," and who gave such splendid accounts 
of the battles throughout the war in the English newspapers, 
said that after the victory there was much less sickness among 
the British troops than ever before. The spirits of the men 
were so raised, that it had a good effect upon their health. 
The Germans were so angry at losing this strong position, 
that it was to be expected they would make another attack. 

The line of the British trenches was firmly established 
on the hill when early in May the Germans made an attack 
on them, and this time, using poisonous gases, managed to 
take some of the trenches. Again the fighting was terribly 
fierce, and in a few days the hill had almost disappeared. 
The position, such as it was, remained in the hands of 
the Germans. 

Again, on the 25th May, the Germans attacked with their 
gases along a line of five miles at Ypres ; but the Allies were 
now prepared for them, and they were driven back once 
more. Their new offensive in the West had ended in com- 
plete failure. 



CHAPTER II 

THE HEROISM OF FRANCE 

The people and the children of Great Britain have naturally 
been chiefly interested in those battles during the war in 
which our own brave soldiers have taken part. But we 
must remember that, after all, the British army stretched along 
only a short length of the 500 mile front in the West. To 
the north, still keeping the Germans from crossing the 
Yser, were the Belgians, and to the south of them some French 
divisions. Joining on to these were the English, holding the 
line from north of Ypres down to La Bassee. South of this 
stretched the long line of the French armies right to the 
borders of Switzerland. 

The story of the French fighting is very fine. Before 
the war, and even after it had begun, some people thought 
that perhaps the French would not fight so well as the other 
nations. The French have been so interested in art and 
literature, and all sorts of learning and science, that some 
people thought they would make very poor soldiers. But 
the French soldiers have been brave and gallant fighters 
all through history, and this war was to show that they were 
as heroic as ever. 

It is difficult for people in England to understand how 
terribly France suffered from the war. The Germans had 
overrun a great part of Northern France, and the people 
there suffered the same terrible cruelties which had been 
committed against the Belgians. Every Frenchman of the 
right age and strong enough was at the front. Trade was 
naturally bad with all the best workers gone, and before long 

France was filled with terrible sorrow. Nearly every family 

16 



THE HEROISM OF FRANCE 17 

had lost a father, or brother or son, in the terrible struggle. 
But the French bore all this, and faced their trial with the 
most wonderful courage. The men in the trenches and the 
women at home were equally brave. 

As time went on, too, people respected and loved General 
Joffre more and more. He was like a father to his men, 
and never passed one without some word, of greeting. But 
he was immensely clever as well as kind, and he was brave 
in the very best way. He had the courage to confess the 
faults of the French army of which he was in conmiand, 
and he had the cleverness to see how to correct them. 

Early in 19 15 an official *' retrospect " of the war was 
published in France. In this General Joffre told quite 
plainly that there had been many things wrong with the 
French army when the war began. All through the winter 
he had been busy putting these things right. Perhaps the 
thing which best shows his courage was his replacing many 
of the older generals, who were often his personal friends, 
by younger men, who were much fresher in mind and body, 
and much better able to lead the men in battle. 

Everyone remembers how, at the very beginning of the 
war, the French invaded Alsace, but were driven back. 
This failure was due to the bad leadership of the general 
in command, and General Joffre took his conmiand from 
him. Only a few days after the failure in Alsace the French 
army which had invaded Lorraine was badly defeated at 
Morhange. Here again all sorts of mistakes had been 
made by the officers in high command. In some cases the 
men were ordered to charge without the way being prepared 
by an artillery attack. To go forward meant certain death 
to all, and some of the junior officers refused to pass on 
the orders to their men. 

Everyone remembers how the French army and the British 
to the left of them, in the " Great Retreat " fell back to 
within twenty miles of Paris, and how in the second week 
of September the Allies won the great victory of the Marne, 



1 8 THE WAR, 191 5 

after which the Germans fell back to the strong positions 
on the river Aisne, where they were to stay so many months. 

But it must be remembered, too, that if the south-eastern 
end of the French line had given way, Paris might not have 
been saved after all, but would have been reached from the 
east. Just as the *' Great Retreat " prevented the Germans' 
outflanking movement at the north-west end of the Allied 
line, so the splendid defence of the strongly fortified town 
of Nancy defeated the outflanking movement on the east. 
The Army of Nancy was under the command of General 
Castelnau, one of the greatest and best of the French generals. 

After the French defeat in Lorraine the Germans got 
ready to invade France from the east. At that time Ger- 
many had plenty of men to spare, for she was, of course, 
mobilizing before any of the other countries. Two big 
divisions moved, one from Metz and one from Zabern, 
towards Nancy. Two others, starting from Strassburg, 
moved one towards Luneville, south-east of Nancy, and one 
towards Epinal, still farther south. 

Luneville was soon occupied by the Germans, but the 
most terrible fighting went on in the district to the south. 
A dreadful thing happened in a splendid attack which the 
French made on the Germans entrenched on high ground 
near the river Montague at Gerbeviller. The Germans had 
three rows of trenches, the last on the edge of a wood, and 
the French were to attack these. It was arranged that they 
should be helped by heavy guns bombarding the wood. 
There was a thick fog, and the regiment which was to do 
the work charged through it, took the Germans by surprise, 
and bayoneted every soldier in the first trench. Then they 
rushed on to the second, and took this too, and on again to 
the trench in front of the wood. Just then the French artillery 
opened fire, never dreaming that their own men had already 
reached the wood. The brave men fell, killed and wounded 
by shells from their own guns. These terrible accidents, 
when men have been shot down by their own guns, happened 



THE HEROISM OF FRANCE 19 

several times during the war. The Frenchmen had to fall 
back from the position they had won so splendidly, and there 
was no chance of taking it again just then. But even then, 
resisting great numbers of Germans, the regiment dug Itself 
in a few hundred yards from the front trench, instead of 
being driven back across the river, as might have been ex- 
pected. 

The little town of Gerbeviller, near which this sad thing 
happened, was to suffer dreadfully from the German attack. 
The river Montague runs through the town, cutting it in 
two. Two bridges cross the river, joining the two parts. 
There were just seventy of the famous French Chasseurs 
Alpins to prevent a whole regiment of Germans from crossing 
the bridges. These seventy held them well, and it was 
seventeen hours before the Germans got across at last. They 
had thought that there were many more French soldiers 
against them. The Chasseurs had ridden on bicycles from 
place to place in the town, firing from so many places that 
the Germans naturally thought there were many soldiers 
against them. When they found just these seventy, they 
declared that the people of the town must have been firing. 
The same treatment was given to the people of Gerbeviller 
as had been given to so many Belgians. Many people were 
shot, and the houses were burned, after being sprayed with 
petroleum to make them burn better. Only the chateau, 
which had been turned into a hospital, and the few houses 
near It, were spared. This was not through any mercy from 
the Germans, but simply through the brave and firm way 
in which the nun in charge of the hospital, Soeur Julie, acted. 
She told the German officers that they had no business to 
act as they had done, and they agreed to spare the hospital, 
but looked at every man In bed to see that he was really 
wounded. They meant to set fire to the rest of the street, 
but Sceur Julie said that this would set fire to the hospital 
too, and so they spared this, at least. Later the Germans 
sent their wounded also to be nursed at the hospital — ^whlch, 



20 THE WAR, 19 1 5 

ScEur Julie confessed, was " a hard trial to Christian charity, 
but we did it." Later the brave nun was decorated with 
the cross of the Legion of Honour by the French President. 

But it was far more important for the Germans to succeed 
at Nancy. This town is surrounded to the east by a semi- 
circle of hills known as the " Grande Couronne " or " Great 
Crown '* of Nancy. During the last few years the French 
have been building fortifications on these hills. Before this, 
for forty years after the peace made in 1870, they had not 
been able to build any fortifications near the frontier. For- 
tunately they had worked well at the fortifications in these 
few years. The hills of the Great Crown are at distances 
of from about ten to sixteen miles from Nancy, and it was 
against this that two columns of German soldiers marched 
from Metz, while a third came up from Luneville after the 
taking of that place. 

Great guns were brought up from Metz, for the bombard- 
ment, but the French hid their own guns very cleverly on 
the heights, and the big German guns which would have 
wrecked them never found out where they were. 

The German infantry advanced in their close ranks time 
after time, but were always driven back. Their losses in 
killed and wounded were enormous. On the plateau of 
Amance alone, where the fighting was particularly fierce, 
the Germans lost 20,000 men. Never for a moment did 
the Germans succeed in getting a position on any of the 
hills of the " Great Crown of Nancy.'* The attack in August 
was a complete failure, and General Castelnau made a counter- 
attack, driving back two columns across the river Seille 
towards Metz, while the third column fell back to Luneville. 

Again, at the beginning of September, a new attack was 
made, and this time a very distinguished German regiment, 
the White Cuirassiers of the Imperial Guard, was brought 
to the attack, but failed. The French, in fact, began to ad- 
vance, and the Germans withdrew from Luneville. The 
Battle of the Marne had just put an end to the German 



THE HEROISM OF FRANCE 21 

hope of advancing directly upon Paris, and the splendid 
defence by General Castelnau of the Great Crown of Nancy 
saved Paris from any advance upon her from the south-east. 

It was a pity that General Joffre had not more men to go 
on with a real offensive at this end of the line after the great 
French victory at Nancy. If there had been more men, the 
army might have moved up northwards, attacked the Germans 
besieging Verdun, and even prevented the Germans from 
entrenching themselves for the winter in Champagne. Then, 
just at the time when Sir John French was moving up his 
troops from the Aisne to Flanders to attack the German 
right, this blow might have been struck at the German left, 
and the whole story of the war might have been cahnged. 
But this was not to be. The French had wasted too many 
men in the invasion of Lorraine, and the army needed the 
reorganization which General Joffre gave to it in the winter 
months. Instead of following up their success at Nancy, 
the French were not in a position to prevent the Germans 
taking St. Mihiel and other positions on the hills near the 
river Meuse, where they made a great wedge half-way between 
Nancy and Verdun. Many months were to pass before the 
French again began to make progress in this region, but 
meanwhile General Joffre had improved and strengthened 
his army, and the French nation had done its best to help 
him. 

Besides replacing old and worn-out officers by new and 
fresher men. General Joffre took steps to get more soldiers. 
All men between the ages of 25 and 47 years were called 
up. As France has conscription, these men were, of course, 
already trained. Then, too, the young men who would not 
have been called up for their military training until 19 15 
were summoned for training, and were learning to be good 
soldiers already by Christmas 19 14. In this way there were 
a million more men ready to join the French army at the 
front in the spring. There was every hope that the British 
army in France would by that time have reached a million 



22 THE WAR, 1915 

men too. But General Joffre knew that ammunition is as 
important in modern warfare as even men can be, and already 
in the winter great preparations were made for the manufac- 
ture of more guns and ammunition. Every factory that was 
in any way suitable for their manufacture was called upon 
to help, and every week new batteries were sent out to the 
French army at the front. The French were making up as 
quickly as possible for not having been prepared, like the 
Germans, for war. It was three or four months later that 
the people in Great Britain, roused by Lord Kitchener's 
appeals, began to understand how important it was that 
everybody who could should help in the manufacture of 
ammunition. 

Another great task which the French cheerfully set about 
in the winter months of waiting was the improvement and 
rearrangement of their fortresses. They had learned from 
the sieges of the great Belgian forts, Liege and Namur, which, 
though so strong, had fallen before the German attacks, 
that the most important thing was to hide the guns and make 
them easily movable from place to place. Also they had 
learned that a fortress should always have a good army in 
the field before it to keep the enemy from closing right in 
on the fortress with heavy fire, as had been done in Belgium. 
The French had learned these lessons like everyone else, 
but the wonderful thing was the way in which they began 
to act on them. The fortifications at Verdun were altered 
completely, and there was never any danger of that fortress 
falling before the attacks of the enemy. 

The result of General Joffre 's work was seen in the success 
along the French front all through the spring. All along 
the line in Champagne, the Vosges, the Argonne, and Alsace 
and Lorraine, the French communiques almost constantly report 
progress in the first five months of the year. Steadily General 
Joffre was " nibbling '* away, gaining good positions and 
pushing the French line steadily forward. The gain was 
not so much in this advance of the line as in the winning 



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THE HEROISM OF FRANCE 23 

of these strong points, and in the constant loss of men which 
the French successes meant for the Germans. 

Yet in January the fighting near Soissons, where the 
French attacked the Germans in the positions they had 
taken on the Aisne, went badly for the French. Early in 
January the French entrenched on the bank of the Aisne 
opposite to Soissons began cheerfully to attack the Germans 
entrenched on the hills in front of them. At first all went 
well. They won " Hill 132," and got a footing on the plateau 
beyond. From there they might have taken the important 
railway junction at Anizy. If they could have done so they 
would have so interrupted the German supplies that the 
enemy would have had to fall back many miles. General 
von Kluck, one of the cleverest of the German generals, was 
in command of this part of the German line, and he immedi- 
ately brought up strong reinforcements to attack the French. 
Two Army Corps, or 80,000 men, were thrown against the 
12,000 Frenchmen, and they got ready not only to push the 
French back down the hill, which they were able to do easily 
with so many men, but also to push them back across the 
Aisne. The German reinforcements had been brought up as 
usual by train, for the Germans made excellent use of the 
railways throughout the war. The French could not be 
reinforced because of the sudden storms which flooded the 
Aisne, and broke the bridges down. 

All through the night of the 12th January the French 
engineers worked desperately with their feet frozen, to re- 
place the bridges, and by morning one bridge was finished. 
Men and ammunition w^ere hurried across, but in a short 
time the bridge was swept away again. The little band of 
Frenchmen cut off in this way charged up the hill again and 
again against the great army of Germans. Time after time 
they were driven back, but, even then, held their positions 
while the bridges were repaired. A single battery kept the 
Germans back while the retreat was made in order. The 
young oflicer in charge of it fired his last shell as the last 
III C 



24 THE WAR, 191 5 

of the French troops crossed the river. His arm was broken, 
but he coolly stood to make his guns useless to the enemy 
before the Germans had time to take them. 

Some of the Germans crossed by bridges higher up the 
river, and got into the outer part of Soissons ; but they were 
driven out, and the enemy was never able, as General von 
Kluck had probably hoped, to push their line across the river. 
The French had really pushed forward too quickly and with 
too few men. The line remained as it was for many months 
at Soissons, but in other parts of the French front much 
progress was made. 

In February, for instance, great progress was made in 
the district near Reims. The bombardment of the beautiful 
old Cathedral had gone on steadily through the winter. 
It was bombarded for eighty days without a day being 
missed. In the part of Champagne east of Reims the French 
began a strong offensive ; and especially near Perthes, a little 
to\\Ti half-way between Reims and Verdun, there was very 
fierce fighting. In three weeks the French advanced along 
a line of about half a mile, a distance of from two hundred 
yards to three-quarters of a mile. The losses on both sides 
must have been from 50,000 to 60,000 in killed and wounded. 

Already early in January the French had begun to push 
forward their line to the south-east of Verdun, especially in 
the Vosges Mountains and Alsace, and they were successful. 
On the 4th January the Alsatian town of Steinbach was taken 
after twelve days' fighting. A little more than a month 
later the French got possession of Hill 937 in the Vosges. 
On the 5th March the French communique announced pro- 
gress nearly along the whole front, but especially north of 
Arras, in Champagne, and in the Argonne. On the 27th 
March the French, after hard fighting through many days, 
won the height of Hartmannsweilerkojf^ an important spur 
of the Vosges mountains stretching out towards Mulhausen. 
It will be remembered how the French took and lost Mul- 
hausen in the early days of the war. The advance into 



THE HEROISM OF FRANCE 25 

Alsace in August had been too rapid, and was bound to 
fail, but now Alsace was being gradually but securely won 
back to France. It was told afterwards how the French 
advanced and seized the positions on the height of Hart- 
mannsweilerkoff only ten minutes after the guns had ceased to 
prepare the way for their advance. It shows the spirit with 
which the French soldiers were fighting. All through April 
and May the advance went on in Alsace and near St. Mihiel, 
where the Germans had driven in a wedge between Verdun 
and Nancy in September. Along both lines forming the sides 
of this wedge the French attacked, pushing the Germans 
back and repulsing their counter-attacks with great slaughter. 
At Eparges to the north of St. Mihiel, where the French 
attacked a ridge, the fighting was especially fierce, and in two 
months the Germans lost 30,000 men. 

The story of General Joffre's " nibbling " tactics is, then, 
one of success. The French no longer attempted rapid in- 
vasion of enemy territory, like the invasion of Alsace and 
Lorraine at the beginning of the war. General Joffre's 
" nibbling " was a surer plan. It attacked the enemy in the 
weakest spot. The Germans had had greater numbers than 
the Allies in the earlier battles of the war, but now the Allies 
were often in greater numbers, and General Joffre's strategy 
made the Germans waste more and more men. This is 
really the only way in which a victory can be gained in 
modern warfare. No one great battle can decide the victory, 
as in past wars. The battle fronts are too long, and men 
can be moved more easily from place to place. The victory 
must be won by " wearing down " the enemy and exhausting 
his men and material. This has been called a process of 
*' attrition," which means " wearing down." General Joffre's 
" nibbling " has helped much in the progress ; and though 
the French pushed their line forward slowly, it was a steady 
advance, and the method was bringing the time nearer when 
there would no longer be this slow movement, but when the 
Germans would go back with a rush to their own land. 



CHAPTER III 

THE FIERCE STRUGGLE ON THE 
RUSSIAN FRONT 

While the Germans had been repulsed all along the Western 
front, great things had been happening on the Russian 
front. Everyone will remember how the Germans had 
hoped to spend Christmas in Warsaw, and how the Russians 
had kept them back. At the New Year the Russian line 
in Poland, south of the Vistula, stood firm and strong, and 
there was little chance of the Germans breaking it. To the 
north the line stretched to where the extreme right lay in 
East Prussia, the German soil of the Kaiser's " beloved " 
province, from which he was most anxious to drive it. The 
Germans had a strong defence in the line of lakes and marshy 
lands, where the Russians had suffered so badly after their 
first triumphant march into East Prussia at the beginning of 
the war. But to the north of this a Russian army was pre- 
paring to advance to Tilsit. In the southern part of the line 
the Russians had occupied Bukowina, the most easterly part of 
the Austrian territory, and were ready to advance through the 
Carpathian passes into Hungary. It will be remembered how 
they had flung the Austrians back through these passes when 
they tried to outflank them in December, and so prevent 
the Russians advancing into Silesia, the heart of industrial 
Germany. 

During the whole war Germany had hoped to drive 
back the whole Russian line, and so be able to entrench 
themselves in front of the San, the Vistula, and the Niemen, 
but they had never been able to do it. They had, however, 
won several big battles against the Russians, and they hoped 
to win more, until Russia should be weary of the war. 

26 




O ^, 
21 i 



THE RUSSIAN FRONT 27 

They prepared for one of these battles at the end of 
January, and succeeded at length a second time in pushing 
the Russians out of East Prussia and back from the frontier. 
At the same time it was necessary to push back the Russian 
line, which lay farther south, near the southern frontier of 
East Prussia. If these had not been attacked, they would 
have been able to attack the right flank of the German army, 
which was pushing back the Russian right from East Prussia. 

But it was against this northern part of the Russian line 
that the great attack was made. The Germans once more 
used the splendid railways of East Prussia, which had been 
built long before the war, and which were really very little 
used in times of peace, but had been built for time of war. 
Large numbers of men were brought up by train. One 
corps was brought right across from the Western front, which 
was not, however, weakened, for another corps from Germany 
was sent to take its place. Other troops were brought up 
from the south of the Vistula, where the Germans had for 
the time given up hope of breaking through to Warsaw. 
Two corps of newly-trained youths were also brought up. 

All this was done very quietly to surprise the Russians. 
One regiment of the corps brought from the Western front, 
was even left behind, so that the Allies on the West should 
not guess that the corps had gone, and so warn the Russians. 
It was not until the 4th February, a week after the corps had 
left the Western front, that the Russians guessed that special 
preparations were being made against them in this part 
of the line. On the 7th February the attack began. 

The Russians, with such great odds against them, had 
no chance of resisting the attack. They were bound to fall 
back. On the extreme right especially the Germans, trying 
to outflank them, pressed hard against them. The safest 
thing to do would have been for the 3rd Corps on the 
extreme Russian right to fall back in a south-easterly direc- 
tion, avoiding the outflanking movement, and keeping in 
touch with the other corps of the loth Russian Army, of 



28 THE WAR, 19 1 5 

which they formed a part. But General Sievers, who com- 
manded the loth Army, gave different orders. The 3rd 
Corps drew off more and more to the north-east, and lost 
touch with the corps to the south of them. Even the Germans 
had not hoped for such good luck. Not only did they out- 
flank, but were able to surround, the 20th corps, which lay 
farther south, on the 13th February. The corps fought on as 
it retired. Parts of it were still fighting on the 22nd February. 
At first it was thought that only a few men of the whole corps 
had come safely out, but in the end parts of two regiments 
rejoined the Russian line, having fought their way for twelve 
days, along a distance of sixty miles, with the Germans 
attacking them all the time. One of the great qualities of the 
Russian soldiers is their endurance. 

The two corps to the south of the 20th Corps were also 
in great danger, but they held well together, and fell back 
safely across the Niemen. They lost many men, for their 
retreat was hampered by the deep snow which lay on the 
ground, and made it impossible to use motors for transport. 
The retreat took ten days, instead of the four in which it a 
could have been made but for the snow. The defeat of the 
loth Army was a real success for the Germans. It was 
made possible by the poor generalship of Baron Sievers, and 
the story was told that the Grand Duke Nicholas reproved 
the General for the way in which he had conducted the 
retreat. 

The Russian line to the south, along the rivers Narew and 
Bobr, which are joined by canal to the Niemen, was attacked 
at the same time as the loth Army. This was necessary, as 
otherwise the Russians would have been able to hamper the 
Germans advancing from East Prussia. But the attacks on 
this part of the line were not very fierce, and the Germans 
did not cross the rivers, except the Niemen at one point 
north-west of Grodno, from which they were quickly driven 
back again. 

In one part of the line, however, there was fierce fighting. 




t- R 



THE RUSSIAN FRONT 29 

This was between Mlawa, a town quite near the frontier of 
East Prussia, and Ostrolenka. Here, by the same tactics 
by which they had surrounded the 20th Corps, the Germans 
now surrounded the village of Przasnysz. But this time the 
Russians made a splendid counter-attack, which began on 
the 24th February. They attacked the positions on the 
little river Orzic, along which the Germans had made a stand 
to protect the left of the German line south of Przasnysz. 
By the evening of the 24th, after a day's hard fighting, they 
had pushed the Germans back and crossed the river. All 
through the day on the 25th the fight went on south of 
Przasnysz, until the Germans fell back to the village. The 
next day the Russians, advancing to the north-east, attacked 
the village, and took it by the evening. During the night 
the Germans drove them out, but on the 27th the Russians 
got the village once more, and the Germans fell back over the 
frontier. The Germans had boasted that they had taken 
10,000 prisoners and 20 guns in the first few days' fighting 
in this part of the line, but they themselves left 10,000 
prisoners in their retreat. 

Some people thought that if the Germans had been really 
successful here they might have advanced on Warsaw from 
the north-east, as they had failed over and over again to 
reach it from the west. But it is not really likely that they 
hoped to do this. The Russians had saved themselves 
splendidly at Przasnysz, but Germany had driven the in- 
vaders for a second time from East Prussia. Before many 
weeks the Russians had pushed their right well forward again, 
and regained about one-third of the distance between the 
river Niemen and the East Prussian frontier. 

Meanwhile important things were happening in other 
parts of the Russian front. In the first few days of the 
New Year the Russians advanced rapidly through Bukowina, 
and on 6th had reached the frontiers of Hungary, capturing 
1000 Austrians. About the same time, and perhaps to 
make the Russians draw off men from this part of the 



30 THE WAR, 19 15 

line, the Germans began a strong attack on the Russian line 
in front of Warsaw, which was only 30 miles from the town. 
They had tried so often to reach Warsaw, and now they 
began a new method of attack, sapping and mining the ground 
desperately, and carrying steel shields before them as they 
advanced. But once more the attack failed. 

At the same time the Russians were advancing through 
the Carpathian passes towards Hungary. The Austrians 
began to mass troops in Bukowina in the last week of January, 
and succeeded in stopping their advance into Hungary. 
The Austrians were strengthened by German troops, and 
made a very determined attack, and the Russians fell back 
out of Bukowina in the next few weeks. But in Galicia, 
where also a severe attack was made on them, and in the 
passes of the Carpathians, they had success after success, 
capturing thousands of Germans and Austrians, and taldng 
many guns. 

Again, early in February, the Germans began a new attack 
on Warsaw, where a tremendous battle was fought. As 
before, the Russians drove the enemy back, killing and 
wounding *' tens of thousands " of men. All through 
February, and on into March, the Russians had to report 
victories in the Carpathians and Galicia. One victory was 
won in the Carpathians on the 7th February, and it was 
reported that it was won " after a long bayonet fight without 
precedent in history. All the mountain slopes were strewn 
with dead." This expression comes over and over again 
in the reports of the Russian victories. All through the 
winter the Austrians had suffered terribly in holding the 
snow-covered passes of the Carpathians, through which the 
Austrians were constantly trying to relieve Przemysl. The 
transport over the mountain passes in the winter months 
was very difficult, and the wounded suffered terribly. General 
Brussiloff, who was in charge of this part of the Russian line, 
was content to remain on the other side of the mountains, 
well in touch with the railway. When the Austrian attacks 



THE RUSSIAN FRONT 31 

weakened, he pushed his artillery forward, and bombarded 
the entrance to the mountain passes. The numbers engaged 
in these battles on the Russian front were much larger as a 
rule than those on the West. Both Germans and Russians 
report the taking of thousands of prisoners. For instance, 
in three days at the end of January the Russians captured 
in Galicia 60 officers and 2400 men, taking at the same time 
3 guns and 10 machine guns, and again at the beginning 
of March, they took in Eastern Galicia 6000 prisoners, 64 
officers, and several guns. Then on the 22nd March, Przemysl 
fell at last. 

It will be remembered how this strongly fortified town 
had been " masked," or invested by the Russians ever since 
September. For six months it had held out (having been 
relieved once in the middle of October, when the Russians 
fell back for a short time), and when it fell it seemed to the 
Russian soldiers that Galicia was won. This was not the 
case, as we shall see ; but the fall of Przemysl was a very 
important gain to the Russians for many reasons. It gave 
the Russian soldiers, if possible, more courage than before. 
It also gave a large number of prisoners to the Russians, 
and they were now able to add to their fighting line the 
quarter of a million soldiers who had been investing the for- 
tress. Przemysl was founded in the Middle Ages by Russian 
princes, who ruled Galicia at the time, and its winning 
back by Russian soldiers seemed a very romantic thing. 

It must be remembered that the investment of Przemysl 
had not been a real siege. No great heavy guns had been 
brought up to bombard it, and during the investment not 
one shell fell within the town itself. The forts ran round 
the town at a distance of about four miles. There was a 
space of sometimes not much more than a mile, and some- 
times as much as five miles, between them. It was a strong 
fortress, but not one of the strongest in Europe. If Liege 
and Namur fell before the assault of heavy guns, Przemysl 
could not have held out long against them. But the Russians 



32 THE WAR, 1915 

had plenty of men to spare for an Investment, and preferred 
this method. 

It will be remembered that Przemysl is a very important 
railway centre. Through it runs the Russian railway con- 
necting Lemberg with Cracow, and another connecting 
Galicia with Hungary, and which runs across the Carpathians 
through the Dukla Pass. 

The Austrians had often tried to relieve the fortress 
since the beginning of November, when, with the advance 
of the Russians again, the investment had been resumed. 
Often, too, the garrison made *' sorties " — that is, came out 
from the fortress and tried to break through the investing 
line. Once the Austrians advanced through the Lupkow 
Pass In the Carpathians to try to relieve Przemysl, and at the 
same time the garrison made a sortie and reached a point 
only fifteen miles from the relieving army. But the Russians 
threw them back. Again the Austrians pressed across the 
Carpathians, in January, to try to relieve Przemysl, but 
failed once more. Then came the great Russian successes 
in the Carpathians in February and March ; but even in 
March several sorties were made from the fortress. 

It was a curious thing that these sorties were never made 
by a very great number of men, and when Przemysl fell the 
Russians were surprised to find such a large garrison defend- 
ing it. There were 130,000 men altogether, and only 30,000 
had taken part in the sorties. 

When, on the 13th March, the Russians, in pushing back 
a sortie, took possession of the village of Malkowice, only 
five miles from the centre of the city, they knew that 
Przemysl must soon fall. The garrison knew It too, and 
on the 1 8th and 19th March they fired off a great quantity 
of ammunition, which was aimed at nothing In particular, 
and did no harm to anybody. The Russians guessed that 
they were only using up the ammunition, so that the Russians 
should not have it when the fortress fell. Yet even on the 
2ist a sortie was made, in which great numbers of men were 



THE RUSSIAN FRONT 33 

killed and wounded, and nearly 4000 prisoners taken. It 
seemed a very terrible thing for the Governor of the fortress to 
send men out to die and suffer when he must have known that 
they could not do anything to relieve the fortress. It was 
known afterwards that these men must have been starving. 

After the failure of this last sortie, all through the night 
of the 2 1 St March the garrison were busy firing off ammuni- 
tion, and throwing it into the river, smashing rifles and 
Spoiling guns. Then on the 22nd, when they had destroyed 
all that could have been of use to the Russians, the Governor- 
General Kusmanck yielded up the fortress without making 
any conditions. It was handed over quietly, and the Russians 
entered it as quietly, without any of the show which the 
Germans would have used in such a case. 

The conquerors found that the garrison and the people 
of the town were starving. They had been killing and 
eating horses, dogs, and cats. The people were as glad to 
see the Russians marching in as the Russians were of their 
victory. As quickly as possible they had food brought up 
by train for the starving people. There was a little delay 
in this, through the stupid order which the Governor had 
given to break down the railway bridges. 

People have thought that the holding out of Przemysl 
for so long was a very fine thing, but it is disagreeable to 
remember that the only people who had it in their power 
to say whether it would give in or not were those who were 
not suffering by the siege. When the Russians marched 
into Przemysl they were surprised to see the contrast between 
the ragged, hungry-looking soldiers and people and the 
officers, who looked perfectly healthy, and as comfortable 
as though there had been no investment at all. While 
women and children had been dying of starvation, all the 
best food had been kept for the officers, who had not suffered 
at all. This seemed very strange to the Russians, among 
whom there is the same affection between officers and men 
as between the British and French officers and soldiers. 



34 THE WAR, 191 5 

The garrison of Przemysl was sent off in batches as prisoners 
to Russia, and a Russian governor was put over the ruined 
fortress. The people settled down quite happily, and it 
seemed that Austrian Poland was to remain to the Russians. 
No one then guessed that In less than three months Przemsyl 
would be In the hands of the Austrlans again. 

After this great success In Galicia It was natural that 
the Russians should push on their attack through the Car- 
pathians into Hungary. It was also to be expected that 
Germany would do her utmost to help the Austrlans to 
drive them back. Hungary is a great wheat-growing country, 
and Germany depends greatly on her for her supply of 
flour for bread. The harvest of winter wheat was ready for 
reaping. If Hungary were to be overrun by the Russians, 
this supply would have been cut off. Germany had already 
to be very careful about her bread, the sale of which had 
been taken over by the Government. Moreover, the Germans 
' knew too that Hungary was afraid of Roumania, and Austria 
of Italy, and if they had not sent help to push the Russians 
back their ally might have made a separate peace. 

Immediately after the fall of Przemysl the Russians 
pressed forward rapidly through the Carpathians, always 
killing and wounding many of the enemy, and taking large 
numbers of prisoners. By the 9th April the Russians held 
70 miles on the Carpathians front from a point south of the 
great Dukla Pass, where there had been so much fierce 
fighting in this and the earlier Russian advances. In less 
than a month the Russians had captured on the Carpathian 
front 70,000 men, of whom about 900 were officers. 

Then in the middle of April news came that the Germans 
had sent enormous reinforcements to this front, and that 
German officers had taken over command of the troops there. 
Even whole German corps were sent to help to drive the 
Russians back in this part of the line. The Russian oifensive 
was checked. They knew that great numbers were coming 
against them, but they did not know how many. The 



THE RUSSIAN FRONT 35 

Germans not only threw in great numbers of men, but made 
a special effort with their artillery. The method which the 
British had used at Neuve Chapelle, and which the Germans 
had said was " murder," was used here against the Russians. 
On a very small front 4000 guns were placed, arranged in 
rows one above another, and firing an immense number of 
shells in a very short time. 

And now one real weakness of the Russians made itself 
felt. They had always great numbers of men, but at this 
time they had not enough ammunition to resist a great . 
artillery attack like this. AH through the winter Russia had 
been cut off from communication with her Allies. The 
ammunition she needed so much could not be sent to her 
from the West. Her great northern port, Archangel, is 
always blocked with ice in the winter months ; and when 
Turkey joined in the war on the German side, the Black Sea, 
the only other way in which she could receive supplies 
quickly, was of course closed to the Allies. 

The Russians had to fall back through the Carpathians 
and in Galicia, but they retreated in order and fought every 
step. They were careful to keep their long line from being 
cut. Fighting in this way they fell back to the river San. 
By means of their terrible shower of shells the enemy was 
able to push them across the river and retake Jaroslav, which 
had been taken by the Russians in the early days of the war 
and kept ever since. Along the line of the San the Russians 
made a splendid stand. At one point only — at Stryj, where 
the Germans were pressing specially hard in the hope of 
taking Lemberg — ^they managed to pierce the Russian line, 
but it closed up quickly, and great numbers of the Germans 
found themselves cut off on the wrong side of the line. 
Lemberg was safe ; but at the beginning of June the Allies 
in the West were disappointed to hear that Przemysl had 
fallen again into German hands. 

Some people were very sad at the Russian defeat, but 
those who had studied best the way in which Russia had 



36 THE WAR, 1915 

fought throughout the war prophesied that she would soon 
recover and advance again. Moreover, it was pointed out 
that there was no real " fall " of Przemysl this time. Przemysl 
was no longer a fortress, for the Austrians had destroyed its 
fortifications before they gave it up. The Russians fell back 
from Przemysl on the 3rd June, just as they had fallen back 
many times before, to keep their line well connected and safe. 

For this same reason they had fallen back at this time in 
Southern Poland to keep their line continuous with that in 
Galicia. But they always fell back in order and fighting 
hard, and were always ready to take advantage of any slip 
on the part of the enemy. V/hen the Germans followed 
them up too rapidly at Opatow, the Russians turned suddenly 
and drove them back fourteen miles, and kept them there. 
North of East Prussia, too, the Germans invaded Russia, 
and took the town of Libau on the 8th May, but this move- 
ment was not important. 

It must be remembered that this falling back of the 
Russians did not represent a great victory of the Germans. 
The Germans had wished for such a crushing victory so that 
they could withdraw great numbers of their men to the 
Western front. But the Russians were not in any way 
crushed. They had been pushed back, as they had been 
pushed back before, after a wonderful advance, and those 
who knew them best were sure that they would advance 
again. The Germans had got the advantage through the 
Russian scarcity of ammunition, but they themselves were 
losing what they could not spare at this stage of the war — 
great numbers of men. At the end of the spring campaign 
the Russian victories and her fine retreat had had much the 
same effect on the German armies as General Joffre's 
" nibbling " tactics in the West. If the x\llies could not look 
forward to a near day when the Russians should pour into 
the plain of Hungary and into Silesia, they had the satisfaction 
of knowing that in the East, as well as the West, the process 
of " attrition " was going steadily on. 



CHAPTER IV 
EGYPT AND THE TURKS 

Everyone will remember how Germany and Austria, after 
fighting alone for three months against England, France 
and Russia, at last persuaded Turkey to join them as an ally. 
Great Britain declared war on Turkey on the 5th November, 
1 9 14. Though it was the Allies who declared war, Turkey 
had behaved in such a way since the beginning of the war 
that they were bound to do so. It was the great wish which 
they had to keep the peace which had made the Allies bear 
so long the insults of Turkey. She had not behaved in any 
way as a neutral power should. 

When the war began there were two fast German cruisers, 
the Goeben and the Breslau, in the Mediterranean. These 
ships had been intended to go out on the trade routes and 
destroy British and French shipping. But they had not 
got out in time, and were still in the Mediterranean when 
war broke out. When they were chased by a British squadron, 
they raced away through the Dardanelles into Turkish 
waters. Instead of acting as a neutral sovereign, the Sultan 
gave a special audience to the captain of the Goeben, and 
entertained the German crews at a feast which lasted three 
days. As a neutral State, Turkey should not have allowed 
the German ships to stay in her waters, but in a short time 
she announced that she had bought the two ships, and that 
the crews were to be interned until the end of the war. Even 
this was not acting as a neutral State should ; but, as a 
matter of fact, the German crews were never interned at all. 
The men were given Turkish uniforms, and the officers were 

given command of the Turkish warships. The Goeben still 

37 



38 THE WAR, 1915 

attacked trading ships of the Allies, and then at the end of 
October actually bombarded places on the Russian coast. 
It was ridiculous that a ship pretending to belong to a 
neutral power should behave like this, and at the beginning 
of November all of the Allies declared war on Turkey. 

Germany had for a long time been very friendly with 
Turkey, hoping to win from her a Black Sea port for Austria. 
She hoped also, by means of her influence over Turkey, 
to get great influence in the East, and, by the great Baghdad 
Railway, which she was helping Turkey to build, to be able 
to reach easily the seas of Southern Asia. German news- 
papers and statesman declared that Germany meant to fight 
against the great powers which, as we shall see, Great Britain 
already had in these waters. It can easily be understood, 
then, that Great Britain looked with distrust on Germany's 
friendship with Turkey. 

The most powerful statesman in Turkey was Enver 
Pasha, who had been partly educated in Germany. It was 
probably the Germans who persuaded him to get the Turkish 
Government to declare that the war was a " Jehad " — ^that is, 
a Holy War. The Sultan of Turkey is the head of the 
Mohammedans all through the world, and this cunning 
statesman thought that if a " Jehad " were proclaimed the 
millions of Mohammedans whom Great Britain rules in 
India and Egypt would rise up against her. He was quite 
wrong. The Mohammedans of India and Egypt saw two 
Christian nations fighting in a quite unchristian way against 
three others. They saw that this was no holy war, and 
throughout the British Empire the Mohammedans hastened 
to declare their loyalty to Britain. Many Mohammedans 
from India were already in the fighting line in France. One 
reason for which Germany wished Turkey to become her 
ally in the war was that this would alarm the Italians, who 
had won Tripoli from the Turks, and might now fear to 
lose it. If Turkey joined in then, Italy would be more likely 
to remain neutral, and would not join the side of the Entente^ 



EGYPT AND THE TURKS 39 

But there can be no doubt that one of the chief reasons 
for which Germany was anxious to have Turkey as an ally 
in the war was the hope that Turkey would attack Egypt. 
This was made more likely because the Turkish officers were 
persuaded, as Germany was herself, that the best method 
of defence is a vigorous attack. Although Turkey had taken 
part in so many wars in the last few years, her army and navy 
were in a very bad state, but since January 19 13 she had put 
her army under German officers to be reorganized. They 
had greatly improved the Turkish army, but had not had 
time to make it into a really good army. 

Formerly only Mohammedan Turks were soldiers, but in 
the last few years the Turkish Government had said that any 
Turkish subject might be called upon to serve in war. It 
was never able to manage this. The Armenian and Christian 
subjects of Turkey, for instance, avoided training, and when 
any of these did fight in the Turkish armies, as some did in 
the Balkan wars, they generally deserted to the enemy. 
When Turkey joined in the war in November 1914 she had 
only 640,000 men, and a good proportion of these were only 
reservists. The officers, however, put in by the Germans 
were young, clever men, and the highest commands were 
held by Germans themselves. 

The Turks had also tried to improve their navy, and for 
this had put themselves under the guidance of Great Britain. 
Two Dreadnoughts were being built for her in British ship- 
yards when the war broke out, and these the Government 
immediately took for the British fleet. This was quite a 
right thing to do, but the Turks were very angry. Now, 
instead of this, they had the Goehen and Breslau. Besides 
these they had six smaller ships. The whole Turkish fleet, 
if it had come out on the open sea, might have been sunk 
by one British battleship. 

The position of Turkey, then, in entering the war was 
not a very happy one. She had enemies on every side. The 
Russian squadron in the Black Sea, though not large, was 

III D 



40 THE WAR, 191 5 

splendidly manned and commanded. A good number 
of French and British warships were waiting outside the 
Dardanelles. She had to keep an army of 300,000 men near 
Constantinople for fear any of the Balkan States should 
attack her, as they would have done if they found that 
Austria was conquering Servia. For all these States knew 
that if Germany should conquer she would reward Turkey 
by giving her territory taken from them. Then in the 
Caucasus Russia could put an army of three-quarters of a 
million men against her. It would really take all the remainder 
of the Turkish army to hold these back if this could be done 
at all. 

The Christian people of Armenia would only be too 
glad to throw off the rule of the Turks, who had treated 
them so cruelly. In Arabia, too, the people might be only 
too glad to rise in rebellion, as they had often risen before 
against the Turks. In the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, and 
the Persian Gulf were British and Japanese warships, and 
the Turks had no ships to put against them. 

Being in this weak position, the Turks accepted the 
German teaching, and prepared for two invasions of enemy 
territory. They crossed the Caucasus, and invaded Russian 
territory, only to be driven back with terrible losses. In the 
winter campaign in the Caucasus, which was one long success 
for the Russians, the Turks suffered terribly. Fighting in 
bitter winter weather, in the high mountain passes covered 
with snow, they had only summer clothes made of cotton to 
wear. The Germans had promised to supply the Turks 
with clothing, but they failed completely, probably because 
they found it was as much as they could do to supply their 
own men on the two European fronts. The Turkish attack 
on the Russian frontier in the Caucasus, made under these 
conditions, was probably arranged by the Germans so as to 
relieve them by drawing off some of the Russian soldiers 
from their Eastern front. As a matter of fact, the Russian 
army in the Caucasus numbered three-quarters of a million. 



EGYPT AND THE TURKS 41 

and it would have had to be a very successful attack indeed 
on the part of the Turks to bring about the withdrawal of 
troops from the other Russian front. 

The Turkish base was at Erzrum, and from here recon- 
noitring parties pushed through the mountain passes, only to 
be pushed back again by the Russians, after suffering terribly 
in the bitter cold and blinding snowstorms which had already 
set in. It was now the turn of the Russians to invade Cau- 
casian Turkey, their object being to push them back to 
Erzrum, and keep them there for the winter. 

Towards the end of November the Russians had advanced 
as far along the road to Erzrum as Koprukeui. There were 
three Turkish corps, or about 120,000 men, lying along this 
road. Almost another corps was brought up at the end of 
November, and lengthened the Turkish line at the western 
end of the frontier between the Russian and Turkish frontiers. 
The Turks had a very clear and good plan in doing thiso 
They meant to outflank the Russians, and attack them from 
the west when they were not expecting any attack there. 

The main struggle along the road from Kars to Erzrum went 
on fiercely. The Russians at Koprukeui were faced by a 
rather larger number of soldiers than they had themselves, 
and were' driven back to Khorosan, At the end of December 
the fighting here was of the fiercest. The Turks were pur- 
posely pressing the Russians hard here, and at the same time 
pushing on the outflanking movement. 

At Christmas it seemed that they were going to succeed. 
Keeping splendid communication between the different parts 
of the line, which is a most important point in an outflanking 
movement, the Turks had forced their way to Sarikamish, 
about thirty miles north of the position where the main 
armies were fighting. To the west the Turks were moving 
towards Ardahan. It seemed as though the Russian right 
wing would be easily surrounded. 

But the Russians acted too quickly, and four days after- 
wards began a counter-attack. By the New Year the loth 



42 THE WAR, 191 5 

Corps had been driven in two directions west and south 
from Sarikamish, and though on New Year's day the troops 
to the west got possession of Ardahan, they were driven 
out again two days later. 

When the loth Corps was driven back, the 9th Corps had 
been left behind, still trying to win Sarikamish, which was 
held by a small Russian force. The town held out for some 
days, and then the Russians fell back before the much greater 
number of Turks, refusing to give in, and fighting at every 
step. At last reinforcements came up through the deep snow 
to help them. 

The Russians now did successfully what the Turks had 
tried in vain to do. They surrounded the 9th Corps, which 
fought desperately, but had to give in at last. A great number 
of prisoners were taken, including the general in command, 
three other generals, and many officers, Turkish and German. 
A great number of guns, machine guns, and much transport 
were also taken. The Turks had fought their "best — indeed 
many had fought with the madness of despair. They had 
been cut off from their supplies, and with their thin clothing 
they suffered agonies from the cold. It is said that, brave 
men as the Turks certainly are, some of them gave in at last 
when they smelt the food cooking in the Russian field-kitchens. 

Part of the nth Turkish Corps had been cut off and 
surrounded with the 9th, but the rest of the corps determined 
to engage the Russians so fiercely that they could not press 
too hard on the retreating loth Corps. So well did the nth 
Corps fight that they drove the Russians back ten miles from 
Khorosan towards the frontier. The Russians made a stand 
at Kara Urgan, where, in the second week of January, a three 
days' battle was fought of the most fierce and terrible kind. 
Fierce snowstorms raged, and amidst them the men fought 
like tigerSo The Russians bayoneted a whole Turkish 
regiment except the officers, who gave themselves up. The 
Siberian Cossacks especially showed themselves fierce and 
terrible enemies. At last the nth Corps was forced to 



EGYPT AND THE TURKS 43 

retreat, but made a stand again at Yenikoi, west of the Erzrum 
road. Here at last, after fighting against terrible odds, they 
fell into disorder and fled, leaving guns and baggage behind 
them. By this time large Russian reinforcements had poured 
in several directions into Caucasian Turkey. The ambitious 
invasions of Russia had not only proved a complete failure, 
but a Russian army of invasion was now in possession of a 
tract of Turkish territory, and the Turk had no chance of 
driving it out. Yet we cannot help feeling a certain ad- 
miration and sympathy for the Turks. They had under- 
taken a task which no other people of Europe would have 
cared to face, and they had fought with the greatest courage. 
Here, as throughout the war, the Turks were the victims 
of Germany. 

The second offensive movement made by the Turks was 
even more interesting and important to Great Britain. This 
was the invasion of Egypt. There were many good reasons 
which led Germany to advise the Turks to invade Egypt. 
The Suez Canal is the chief route between Great Britain 
and India. It would be a splendid thing if the Turks could 
win Egjrpt, and so get command of the Canal. It is not 
likely that the enemy thought they could really conquer 
Egypt, but they may have thought there might be some little 
success, and this would be cheering to the Turks. The 
Turkish people, as distinguished from the Government, 
were not at all in favour of the war, and this might make it 
more popular. One certain advantage to the Germans would 
be that Great Britain would have to keep a large number of 
soldiers in Egypt, and this would relieve the Germans in 
France and Flanders. 

Preparations to invade Egypt were made at the end of 
the year, and 60,000 or 70,000 men were encamped on the 
edge of the Sinai Peninsula in December 19 14. 

Then, at the end of December, the Turks began to move 
forward over the desert in which the Israelites under Moses 
met with so many adventures in the far past. The Turkish 



44 THE WAR, 191 5 

arrangements had been well made under German super- 
vision. Troops which were likely to be in sympathy with 
the English had been sent to the Caucasus. The transport 
had been well planned. Wide cast-iron wheels, especially 
suited to sandy ground, had been fastened to the guns. 
Pontoon bridges of iron had been prepared for crossing the 
Suez Canal. Each separate part was fitted with movable 
rollers to move it over rough ground, but these could be 
removed and the smooth iron surface slipped easily over the 
desert sand. Stores were also carried in the pontoons ; and, 
in fact, all the arrangements were of the best and most 
economical kind. 

The advancing Turks were fortunate in finding a fair 
amount of water in the shallow desert wells, for the winter 
in East as well as West was one of the wettest seasons for 
years. 

The first attack on the Canal was made by the Turks 
under their commander, Djemal Pasha, in the early morning 
hours of the 3rd February. The reason that this time was 
chosen was that the great sandstorm which passes over the 
desert for fifty days in spring had begun the day before, 
and the Turkish commander trusted that the noise of the 
wind would prevent the British hearing his advance. 

The western side of the Canal was splendidly prepared 
for defence. Months before trenches had been dug deep 
and strongly defended. In these trenches were men drawn 
from very different parts of the British Empire. There were 
the East Lancashire Territorial Division, under General 
Douglas. They had offered themselves for foreign service 
early in the war, and had been sent out to Egypt. On their 
arrival many of them were not particularly strong men, and 
had not had a great deal of training, but a few months' drilling 
and experience turned them into strong and splendid soldiers. 
Beside these, in the front line of trenches, were many Indians, 
and some native Egyptian soldiers. Behind them, in reserve, 
were some of the splendid young Australians and New Zea- 



EGYPT AND THE TURKS 45 

landers who had come to the help of the mother country, but 
who were not yet sufficiently trained to be put in the fighting 
line. The war had brought together such a mingling of 
nations as even Egypt had never seen before in the course of 
her wonderful history. 

The Turks decided to make their attack on the part of 
the Canal south of Lake Timsah, where, if they were success- 
ful and got across, they would be only a few miles from an 
important railway junction. Then, too, there were low hills 
on the eastern side in which an advancing force could find 
good cover, and the banks of the Canal were fairly low, so that 
the pontoons and rafts could be fairly easily launched. For 
these reasons it is probable that the attack was expected 
here by the defenders. 

The attack made by Djemal Pasha against so much greater 
numbers in a strong defensive position was hopeless from 
the first. The Turks declared afterwards that they had 
never meant to try to cross the bank, but were merely making 
a reconnaissance. It has been thought that Djemal Pasha was 
persuaded by the German officers, against his better judg- 
ment, to attack, and that he purposely kept most of his men 
in the background ; and whether he did this intentionally or 
not, it is certain that the great part of his force never came 
into action at all. 

The Turks who did make the attack fought bravely and 
suffered horribly. The attack began at three o'clock in the 
morning of the 3rd February, while it was, of course, still 
dark. 

The Turkish plan was to make the chief attack between 
Tussum and Serapeum, while to the right smaller attacks 
were to distract the enemy's attention at El Kantara and 
Ismailia. To the left an attack was to be made at Suez. 
The Turkish soldiers were warned not to do anything or 
make any sound which would betray them to the enemy. 
Djemal Pasha may have had just a hope that he would be 
able to take the defenders by surprise. But the order was 



46 THE WAR, 191 5 

not obeyed. On the opposite bank, however, there was no 
sound to be heard except now and then the barking of a dog. 

The defenders did not fire until the enemy had actually got 
down to the Canal bank, and were launching their pontoons. 
Three of these were sunk immediately. The other two got 
across, but all the men in one pontoon were killed, and only 
a few of the others were able to land. They dug themselves 
in, not far from the bank, but by morning there were only 
four men left alive, and these were, of course, taken prisoners. 
By this time, the Turks were working under a heavy fire, 
and the men carrying the pontoons were shot down before 
they could launch them, crushing other men beneath them. 

At one point south of Tussum a British torpedo boat 
steamed up between two fires, and shelled the Turkish 
trenches. The Turks must soon have seen that they had no 
chance of getting across the Canal, but they returned to the 
attack again and again. Only at daylight, when they stood 
plainly revealed to the guns, did they fall back. 

Although the main defensive line was on the western bank 
of the Canal, there were advance posts on the eastern side 
at Tussum and Serapeum, and from that at Tussum some 
troops moved forward to a position from which they could 
pour a terrible enfilading fire along the enemy's line. The 
attacks to the north of Tussum began rather later than the 
main attack, and both at Kantara and Ismailia the Turks kept 
at a fairly safe distance, and the fighting here was not serious. 

At Lake Timsah one Turkish 6-inch gun opened fire on 
the British ships, and struck the Hardinge, an Indian trans- 
port ship, twice. Captain Carew, who was standing on the 
bridge, had his leg blown off, and was wounded in nineteen 
places, but he calmly said : *' Bring me a chair, and I'll take 
her into port." He was, however, not able to do this, for 
he soon became unconscious, but happily he recovered later 
from his wounds. The whole crew of this Turkish gun 
was afterwards killed by shots from another of the warships 
on Lake Timsah. 



EGYPT AND THE TURKS 47 

By three o'clock in the afternoon of the 3rd February 
the Turks were in full retreat from the Canal. But a certain 
amount of firing still came from the eastern side. On the 
next day it was discovered that many snipers still lay hidden 
among the hills, and in one hidden trench some hundreds of 
Turks were still ready to fight. It seems that the Turk, as 
well as the Briton, does not know when he is beaten, A 
British warship was brought up to shell the position, and some 
Indian infantry advanced to charge with the bayonet. The 
trench was soon taken, many of the Turks resisting to the 
last, but others being at last willing to surrender. 

So the foolish, but at the same time romantic and tragic, 
attack of the Turks on Egypt ended in failure. The British 
lost in all only no men killed and wounded, while the Turks 
must have lost at least 3000, including 600 prisoners. They 
lost, too, their splendid pontoon bridge, for the pontoons 
which were not destroyed were simply left behind in the 
retreat. This made it certain that no new attacks would be 
made on the Canal for some time to come. 

On the other hand, the British did not follow up the 
retreating Turks across the desert. Evidently it had been 
resolved merely to keep on the defensive, and there were good 
reasons for this. Fighting in the desert is always terribly 
trying even to the most experienced soldiers. It would pro- 
bably have been foolish to embark on it with men, many 
of whom, although they had shown themselves, and were 
yet to show themselves, heroic under fire, had still had only 
a few months' training. The Turks might have been 
followed up and crushed, but the gain was not worth the 
loss. 

Enough had been done to show how wrong Germany 
had been in her views of the feeling within the Empire. 
Egypt, which had been made a British protectorate as soon as 
war was declared against Turkey, held as faithfully to Great 
Britain as the colonies Britain's own sons had built up across 
the seas. 



CHAPTER V 

FIGHTING IN THE PERSIAN GULF 

Perhaps the most wonderful thing about the Great War Is 
the way in which it has affected people and places all over 
the world. It would not seem at first sight likely that it 
would have spread so far as the Persian Gulf, one of the 
loneliest yet most historic places in the world. It was pro- 
bably round the Persian Gulf that the earliest races of man- 
kind lived, and now on its lonely waters the quarrel of some 
of the greatest modern nations was to be fought. 

The fighting in the Persian Gulf began when Turkey 
joined in the war, but the motives which led to the fighting 
had little to do with Turkey. For ten years Germany had 
been trying to get influence in the Persian Gulf, where Great 
Britain already had great power. 

The entrance to the Gulf is in one corner of the Arabian 
Sea. At its head the great rivers Tigris and Euphrates empty 
themselves. Here, sixty-seven miles from the coast, stands 
the town of Basra, where the Persian Gulf fighting began. 

The Germans, in desiring influence in the Persian Gulf, 
were once more threatening British power. In a way they 
were even threatening India, for the way through the Persian 
Gulf is the shortest way to that great British possession. 
The English had had certain rights in the Persian Gulf ever 
since 1622, when they had attacked and conquered various 
settlements which the Portuguese, then a great seafaring people, 
had made in the Gulf. In that year it was agreed between 
England and Persia that England should keep two warships 
always in the Gulf. Afterwards the number of warships 
was increased to five, and since that time Britain has been 

the chief Power in the Gulf. 

48 



THE PERSIAN GULF 49 

It was forty-six years after this that the Turks conquered 
Basra and reached the Gulf. But they were never really 
able to conquer Arabia, and had practically no power on the 
western shores of the Gulf until late in the nineteenth century, 
when an ambitious Turkish statesman encouraged Turkey to 
annex El Hasa. But when Turkey laid claim to other tracts of 
land on the Gulf, Great Britain interfered, and she had to give 
up her claim. 

These schemes were dropped until Germany began her 
policy of influencing Turkey for her own gain. The reason 
that Germans had practically taken possession of the railways 
of European Turkey was the great desire Germany had for 
power in the East. Another step in the establishment of 
that power was the securing of a port on the Persian Gulf. 
All sorts of tricks and plans were made to try to win this port, 
but they never succeeded. A German scientific man even 
tried to buy a tract of land from an Arab chief, pretending 
that he wished to follow his scientific researches there. The 
chief refused. He had already promised Great Britain, 
who had now grown watchful, not to give up any of his 
lands without her consent. 

Several other attempts to buy or get possession of land 
in the Gulf were defeated by Great Britain. 

While all this was going on, the Turks were actually 
driven by the Arabs from the part of the Gulf near El Hasa 
which they had seized forty years before. 

In holding Germany back from interference in the politics 
of the Persian Gulf Great Britain was acting quite rightly. 
She was ready to allow all nations equal rights of trading in 
the Gulf, and it was she who had made its waters safe for 
traders by putting down the pirates which had infested them. 
But Great Britain had never seized land on the Gulf for 
herself, and it was not likely that she would allow Germany 
to do this, especially as the German newspapers and lecturers 
made no secret of their ambitions in the East. 

When war was declared on Turkey by Great Britain at 



50 THE WAR, 191 5 

the beginning of November, only the British consuls were 
allowed to leave Basra and Baghdad, but the other English 
people were not in any way ill-treated. The war in the 
Persian Gulf was to be prosecuted by the Indian Govern- 
ment, and troops had already been sent from India, and were 
stationed in Bahrein. From here they sailed to the mouth 
of the Shatt-al-Arab, the river in which the waters of the 
Tigris and Euphrates meet and flow into the sea. The little 
town of Tao, with the Turkish mud-fort behind it, was taken 
with very little trouble. A force was left in possession, and 
General Delamain, who commanded the brigade, proceeded 
with the greater number of his men up the river. 

They sailed between banks of date groves bordering the 
river, which lay beyond the desert. On one side lay Arabia, 
on the other Persia. Thirty miles up the river, on the 
Persian banks, were the great new works of the Anglo-Persian 
Oil Company. The oil refined there is meant for the use 
of the British Navy. General Delamain was anxious to 
arrive in time to prevent the destruction of the works by the 
enemy. They were guarded by H.M.S. Espiegle, which had 
already driven off some small Turkish gunboats. 

From here General Delamain sailed five miles further up 
the river, and disembarked his troops at Samigeh, on the 
Turkish side. The landing was very difficult, as the soft 
and slippery river-banks were ten feet high at this point. 
Here the soldiers encamped and dug themselves in. 
On the nth November, they were attacked by a Turkish 
force from Basra, but drove them back, killing and wound- 
ing about eighty Turks, but not losing many men them- 
selves. 

A few days later reinforcements arrived at the " bar " or 
mouth of Shatt-al-Arab, and the transports with several 
warships steamed up the river. The troops began to dis- 
embark on the 15th, but meanwhile General Delamain 's 
brigade was ordered to attack a Turkish port at the village of 
Sahain, four miles to the north. This was more a recon- 



THE PERSIAN GULF 51 

naissance than an attack, and the village was not taken, though 
it was set on fire. 

Then, after one day's rest, the whole body of troops 
started on the march northward to Basra. On the way it 
was found that the Turks had now fled from Sahain and left 
it empty. But at Sahail, some miles to the north, the Turks 
were strongly entrenched, and were in possession of twelve 
guns, most of which were Krupps. Two of these were near 
the trenches. The others were hidden in a grove 2000 yards 
behind. The British had to advance against this position 
over perfectly flat ground, with no chance of " cover.'* 
Fortunately the Turkish fire was not good, and the British 
advance was of course helped by an artillery attack, while 
two gunboats enfiladed the Turkish trenches from the 
river. The troops, both British and Indian, advanced 
splendidly, though the Turkish fire became heavier and more 
accurate. Though many men fell killed or wounded, the 
rest still advanced, running with bayonets fixed, but when 
they were less than a quarter of a mile from the trenches the 
Turks rose and fled. 

It was impossible to pursue them with any profit, though 
the soldiers shot at them as they ran. The cavalry could 
not follow fast because of the soft ground, and suddenly the 
fleeing Turks were saved from the fire of the guns by a 
mirage, that false appearance of trees and water which is so 
often seen in the desert. It was no use firing at a foe which 
could not be seen, and so the guns ceased. 

Some days rest were necessary before the troops could 
advance on Basra, but on the morning of the 21st November 
news came that the Turks had left Basra, and that the Arabs 
were stealing what they had left behind. Fearing that the 
Europeans in Basra might be in danger. General Barrett, 
who was in command of the whole expedition, gave the order 
to advance. 

Some of the troops were sent up the river in two paddle- 
steamers, and the rest prepared for a desert march. Eight 



52 THE WAR, 1915 

miles up the river the Turks had sunk three ships to block 
the way for the British ships, and had put a battery of guns 
on the bank. But the Turks had not done the work pro- 
perly, and the ships got safely past. They were met by a ship 
sent by the American consul at Basra, saying that the Arabs 
were still going through the town, robbing and burning, 
and that he feared for the lives of the Europeans. The 
soldiers from the ships arrived at 9 o'clock in the morning 
of the 22nd November, in time to restore order, and no 
lives were lost. The rest of the soldiers arrived outside the 
city at midday, after a march of thirty miles through the 
desert. 

Basra is a very rich and busy city, being the centre of a 
great trade in dates. It is also very well situated, and if 
the bar at the mouth of the river were dredged, as it will be 
some day, Basra would be a splendid port. The capture of 
the town was, then, a very good thing for the British. 

There were no Turks left in Basra. There had never 
been many, and the few there had been were either officials 
of the Government or soldiers. It was through these leaving 
the town without government that some of the Arabs had 
broken into disorder. But now the population — ^Arab, Jew, 
and Armenian — ^settled down peacefully under the new 
Government. The British took possession of the city in the 
name of King George V. The Union Jack was hoisted, 
three cheers were given by the soldiers, and the warships 
fired a salute. The last hope of the Germans establishing 
themselves at Basra was gone for ever. . 

The Turks fell back from Basra to Kurna, a place forty- 
nine miles to the north, at the point where the Tigris joins 
the Euphrates. The Arabs think that Kurna is where the 
Garden of Eden was, but modern scholars believe that the 
Garden of Eden was on the river Euphrates, many miles 
north of this point. 

It was not expected that the Turkish resistance at Kurna 
would be very strong, and General Barrett sent forward only 



THE PERSIAN GULF 53 

a detachment of his troops to attack it. Two river steamers 
with guns carried the troops, and three small warships, 
with two smaller boats with guns, went with them. 

Early in the morning of the 4th December the expedition 
landed on the eastern bank, four miles below Kurna. The 
river was very shallow here, and the boats had to be careful. 
From here Kurna itself and the village of Mezera were 
shelled. Mezera was destroyed in half an hour by the 
lyddite shells from the warships. The soldiers crossed the 
river, and drove the enemy from the village and the trenches. 
Those Turks who were able to save themselves crossed the 
river and took refuge in Kurna. 

The British now advanced up the bank until they were 
opposite Kurna itself. They found that the town was 
much more strongly held than they had expected. There 
were many more Turks there than could be attacked by this 
small expedition. They were strongly entrenched, too, and 
guns had been fixed in the windows of some of the houses. 
A terrible fire greeted the British across the river, and they 
began quickly to dig themselves in. During the night the 
Turks received reinforcements, but they did not attack. 

Colonel Frazer sent a message to Basra for reinforcements, 
and these arrived on the morning of the 5th December. By 
this time the Turks had taken Mezera again. Some of the 
warships had been struck by shells and damaged, but the 
British had destroyed two Turkish guns, one of which they 
were able to carry off. On the 7th Mezera was attacked 
and taken once more, and this time some of the British 
encamped there. 

But it was now seen that Kurna could only be taken by 
sending men to attack it from the north. Two battalions 
were sent up stream, marching along the eastern bank with 
two mountain guns. After marching some miles they 
crossed the river and marched down again along the western 
bank towards Kurna. 

No attack was made, but the troops entrenched them- 



54 THE WAR, 19 15 

selves. That night a small steamer came downstream with 
a message from Subhi Bey, who had been Governor of Basra, 
offering to surrender Kurna, but asking that his troops might 
march out armed. This could not be granted, and the Turks 
then agreed to surrender without conditions. At midday 
on the 9th December the Turkish garrison laid down their 
arms in front of their trenches, and Kurna was given up to 
the British. The British general handed back his sword 
to Subhi Bey, who had, after all, defended the town well. 
Forty-two officers and 102 1 prisoners were taken, and also 
several guns. Many of the garrison had escaped during 
the night, some having gone in barges to Baghdad. The 
British losses were small. 

The whole of the great delta was now in British hands. 
A strong body of troops was left at Kurna, and another at 
Mezera. In January a force of 5000 Turks encamped on 
the Ratta Canal about seven miles north of Mezera, but were 
driven off by the British with the help of three gunboats. 

But though the British had taken possession of this 
district fairly easily, they had yet to withstand many attacks 
from the Turks. Early in March several Turkish regiments 
attacked the British positions north of Basra. There was 
some fierce fighting, and the enemy lost some hundreds of 
men. Later in the month strong reinforcements were sent 
to the district round Kurna, and they were only just in time. 
Again in the middle of April the Turks attacked the British 
on the Euphrates with an army of 15,000 men, but again the 
British were victorious, and the Turks, after a desperate 
resistance, retreated before the fierce bayonet charges of the 
British. As they fled they left great quantities of stores 
and ammunition behind them. 

The fighting in the Persian Gulf was all to the advantage 
of Great Britain and the Allies. The Turks had lost the 
little influence they had had there, and the Germans could 
never hope to realize their ambition of rivalling the British 
power in the East. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE STRUGGLE FOR THE DARDANELLES 

The most romantic and perhaps the most terrible part of 
the war in the first months of 19 15 was the attempt by the 
Allies to get an entry into the Black Sea by capturing the 
Dardanelles, the straits which lead into that sea, and which 
have Turkey-in-Europe to the north, and Turkey-in-Asia 
to the south. The Black Sea was, in the winter, the only 
way in which the Allies could send any supplies to Russia. 
Her northern port was blocked with ice, and the German 
fleet guarded the Baltic. 

This was a terrible drawback to Russia, for it meant that 
she would run short, as we have seen that she did, of am- 
munition. It was because of this that the Germans were 
able to push the Russians back in April and May after their 
splendid advance in the early spring. The reason that the 
Black Sea was closed to the Allies and blocked for the Russians 
was that the Dardanelles belong to Turkey, and Turkey 
had been persuaded in November to join in the war on the 
German side. It Vv^as only after this that people began to 
understand how inconvenient it v/as for Russia that she had 
no port leading into the Mediterranean Sea. Her natural 
port would have been Constantinople, which the Turks 
stole from Europe in 1492. 

Not only was Russia inconvenienced by the closing of 
the Black Sea, but Britain and France also suffered, for 
there was shut up there much Russian wheat ready for export. 
The reason Russia depended so much on other countries for 
ammunition is that she is not a manufacturing country. She 
has a vast peasant population, but few large towns, and so far 

III 55 E 



56 THE WAR, 191 5 

has had to buy much of her ammunition from other countries. 
She could, it is true, get a certain amount from Japan across 
Siberia, but this was a terribly long way, and these supplies 
were not of any great use to Russia. 

For these and other reasons the Allies decided to join 
together to win the Dardanelles from the Turks. A victory 
here would not only help Russia to make full use of her 
splendid soldiers, but it might also persuade the neutral 
states of the Balkan Peninsula — Rumania, Bulgaria and 
Greece — to join in the war on the side of the Allies. The 
Greek people and the Greek Government, under the great 
statesman Venizelos, would have been glad to join in the 
war and help France and England. If Turkey were de- 
feated, Greece would gain land in Asia Minor which she 
much desired. But the King of Greece was against this. 
His wife was a sister of the German Emperor, and he did 
all he could to keep Greece out of the war. At last Venizelos 
resigned, but the people were still anxious for war, and in 
the early summer of 19 15 it seemed that Greece might join 
in after all. 

All these Balkan States were anxious to get more land. 
Bulgaria could only get it by Greece or Servia losing it, and 
some people were afraid that she would join in on the side 
of Austria, in the hope of getting part of Servia at the end 
of the war. But Greece would have been willing to give up 
some land in the Balkans to Bulgaria, and so keep her neutral 
if there was a hope of more land in Asia Minor. If the 
Dardanelles were taken too, Turkey would no longer be 
able to take part in the war. 

The Dardanelles Straits are forty miles long, and stretch 
from the y^gean to the Galllpoli Strait, which leads into the 
Sea of Marmora. At the other side of the Sea of Marmora 
is the strait called the Bosporus, leading into the Black Sea. 
The Bosporus would have to be taken too, but this could 
easily be done once the Dardanelles were won. The 
Dardanelles have strong forts all along their length, but 



THE DARDANELLES 57 

they are especially well fortified in one part, called the 
Narrows, ten miles from the ^gean. Here they are only a 
mile wide. 

The Allies agreed that ships of the French and British 
navies should join to bombard the forts, and on the 3rd 
November a French and British squadron steamed up to the 
entrance of the Straits and bombarded the forts within range 
of their guns. This was not the beginning of the real 
bombardment, which could not be carried out until the 
German cruisers on the trade routes had been destroyed. 
Probably this bombardment was only to find the range of 
the forts. 

Some ships and submarines were, however, left near the 
Dardanelles, and it was at this time that Lieutenant Holbrook, 
commander of submarine Bii, dived under five rows of 
mines and destroyed a Turkish battleship. The Turks had 
strewed mines all along the Straits, and as there is a current 
from north to south in the Straits, the mines always drifted 
towards the iEgean, and were a great danger to any ships at 
the entrance of the Straits. When, later, the real bombard- 
ment began, the big battleships could only advance after 
mine-sweepers had gone before to clear the way. 

It was on the 19th February that the real bombardment 
began. A large fleet of British battleships and battle cruisers 
with destroyer flotillas, together with a French squadron, 
began to bombard heavily the four forts at the entrance of 
the Dardanelles, two on the side of Europe and two on the 
Asiatic. The stronger on the European side was Fort 
Sedd-el-Bahr, and on the Asiatic side Kum Kaleh. Both 
these forts had 10.2-inch guns, which could shoot almost 
as far as the 12-inch guns on the ships. The ships therefore 
began the bombardment *' at long range," not steaming in 
too close for fear of being hit by the guns from the forts. 

For seven hours the bombardment went on at long range. 
All four forts were attacked, but most shots were fired at 
Kum Kaleh and the Cape Helles battery, the second northern 



58 THE WAR, 1915 

fort. Then, at about eight o'clock in the afternoon, three 
French and three British battleships sailed closer to the forts, 
and bombarded them at closer range. The forts were able 
to use their guns against these ships which came closer, but 
before long all on the European side of the Straits and all 
but one on the other side stopped firing. Their guns had 
evidently been damaged or destroyed. No French or British 
ship was hit, but the Turkish communiques announced that 
three had been damaged, that none of the forts had stopped 
firing, and that only one man had been killed and one 
wounded on their side. Of course everybody in Europe 
knew that these were foolish lies. 

On the next day the Allies continued the bombardment. 
On both days the ship had been told where to fire by sea- 
planes, which had been brought by the seaplane ship the 
Ark Royal. Then, unfortunately, misty weather, which had 
been so unlucky for the Allies several times at sea and on the 
western front, put an end to the bombardment for a time. 

But on Thursday, the 25th February, it began again, and 
this time the greatest battleship which has ever been built, 
the British super-Dreadnought the Queen Elizabeth^ came to 
help. She was a very fast boat indeed, though not, of 
course, as fast as a battle cruiser, which is built especially 
for speed. She could go at the rate of twenty-five miles an 
hour, but this was not the most wonderful thing about her. 
The shells which are thrown from her big guns weigh 
almost a ton, and can be thrown more than twelve miles. 
In an hour and a half these great guns of the ship, which the 
sailors called *' Big Lizzie," had so pounded the Cape Helles 
fort that its guns stopped firing. Then the smaller ships 
steamed in closer to finish the destruction of the forts. 

The forts on the southern side had had time during the 
misty weather to repair their guns, and when the ships came 
closer they opened fire. But the shots came very slowly 
and were very badly aimed. By the end of the day the whole 
four fort^ were simply masses of ruins. Of the British ships 



THE DARDANELLES 59 

the Agamemnon was hit once by a shot from the Cape Helles 
fort, and three men were killed and five wounded. 

The sweeping away of the mines was now begun. Then, 
on the next day, three battleships advanced four miles up 
the Straits to attack Fort Dardanus, on the Asiatic side, and 
men were sent on shore to finish off the destruction of the 
four forts at the entrance. The powder magazines were 
blown up, and great columns of smoke and flame rose high 
into the air. Kum Kaleh was not entirely destroyed, but 
no part of the other three was left whole. 

It must be remembered that the guns of these forts were 
older and smaller than those of the ships, and this gave the 
ships a great advantage. Even so the destruction of the 
forts had not been an easy task. The bombardment of land 
forts by ships is one of the most difficult kinds of warfare. 
The bombardment of the four forts at the entrance to the 
Straits was the easiest part of the attack. The hardest part 
was to come, when the ships had to sail farther up the Straits. 
The Queen Elizabeth remained outside the entrance, for 
from here she could shell even the forts on the " Narrows," 
thirteen miles away. 

At the beginning of March three ships steamed ten miles 
up the Straits and bombarded the forts there. Then, on the 
3rd March, the Queen Elizabeth began to bombard the forts 
on the Narrows. The forts on the Narrows are very close 
together, and have much larger guns. The Turks have 
always known how important the Narrows are, and have 
kept them well fortified. 

Within a few days two forts on the European side of the 
Narrows, and one on the Asiatic side, had been seriously 
damaged. All this time the peninsula of Gallipolli was cut 
off from getting help from the mainland by the bombardment 
of Bulair by one or more warships in the Gulf of Saros. 

On the 8th March the Queen Elizabeth entered the Straits 
and attacked the fort of Rumili Medjidieh. A few days 
later, on the night of the 13th, the Amethyst^ a light cruiser. 



6o THE WAR, 191 5 

steamed in the darkness right up the Straits under the fire of 
the forts to make a reconnaissance. She was struck many 
times, but got safely back with very little damage. 

By the i8th March it seemed that the Straits were safe 
for ships for nearly ten miles. The forts along this length 
had all been destroyed or damaged. The waters had been 
well swept for mines, and on this day the Queen Elizabeth 
and three other battleships bombarded the chief forts on both 
sides of the Narrows, while other ships went on with the 
bombardment of forts nearer the entrance. The forts also 
fired, but their firing was soon stopped. Then, when six 
more British battleships steamed up to take the places of 
those which had been under fire so long, a terrible thing 
happened. One of the French ships which had taken part 
in the bombardment and was now to be relieved was the 
Boiivet. Suddenly she struck a mine at a spot four miles 
up the Straits. She must have been struck in a vital spot, 
for she sank with all her crew in three minutes. A short 
time afterwards it was seen that the British ship Irresistible 
was leaning over dangerously, and she steamed out of the 
battle line and sank in two hours. About the time she sank 
another British battleship, the Ocean ^ also struck a mine. For- 
tunately most of the men and officers on both ships were 
saved, though the forts were firing on the ships while they 
were being taken off. It was thought that the mines which 
struck these ships were a kind of torpedo, called *' Leon 
torpedoes," which can be fired from a tube or merely put 
into the sea, when they will explode after a certain time. 
Most of the other ships had received some slight damage 
from shots, and though the three battleships were not a very 
great loss in proportion to the number of ships taking part 
in the bombardment, still it seemed a very terrible thing that 
three should go down like this in a few hours, and people 
began to understand what a hard task the Allies had set 
themselves in trying to force their way through the Dardanelles. 

Mine-sweeping had to be done all the time, and yet it 



THE DARDANELLES 6i 

was very difficult to do. Torpedo tubes had been fixed at 
many places on the shore, and the Turks under their German 
officers had hidden howitzers and field guns along the coast. 
The coast lands of the Gallipoli peninsula are covered with 
hills and valleys, just the kind of country where guns can be 
easily hidden. The air scouts worked splendidly, but when 
they knew their gun had been spied out the Turks could 
often move it, without being seen, to a new position, before 
the air scout had had time to give his message and the ships 
opened fire. The Turks would not, of course, have thought 
of all these things themselves, but they were advised and 
commanded by German officers. 

The trick by which the forts often stopped firing when 
they could still have fired seems more like a plan which the 
Turks would make themselves. Sometimes when this hap- 
pened, and a " landing party " went on shore from the 
boats, the guns would suddenly begin to fire again, killing 
and wounding the men. 

Then people began to see that the Navy ought to be helped 
in the attack by the Army. If good numbers of soldiers 
could be landed on the northern shore of the Gallipoli penin- 
sula at the Narrows, the hidden guns and batteries which 
were such a danger to the ships could easily be swept away. 
The landing of soldiers would be difficult, because the Turks 
could defend themselves so well from the hills, but on the 
other hand there was a very long coast-line to defend, and the 
enemy could not guess exactly where a landing would be 
made. With no railways it would take a long time for them 
to bring up reinforcements. 

A plan to land troops was now made, and the command 
was given to General Sir Ian Hamilton, one of the best-loved 
officers in the British army. Troops arrived at the Gallipoli 
peninsula on the 23rd April, carried in big liners. 

The plan was to land the British Troops at three places 
on the coast between Sedd-el-Bahr and the shore opposite 
to the Narrows. The first landing was to be at Morto Bay, 



62 THE WAR, 191 5 

north-east of Sedd-el-Bahr, but as shots from Kum Kaleh 
could reach this position a division of French soldiers, under 
the fine French General d'Amade, was to land at Kum Kaleh. 

The second landing of the British troops was to be made 
at Cape Gaba Tepe, on the north of the Gallipoli peninsula. 
To the south-west of a long stretch of flat land here is the 
important plateau of Pascha Degh. The capture of this 
plateau, rising steeply from the shore, was most important, 
for from it guns could *' command " the Narrows. There 
was to be another landing further north, but this was not 
so important, being made chiefly to draw off the attention of 
the Turks from the others. 

The transport arrived at the coast the men were to attack 
in the early morning hours of Sunday the 25th April. 

The landing near Cape Gaba Tepe was entrusted to 
Australian and New Zealand troops, some of the splendid 
soldiers whom the colonies had sent to help the Mother 
Country. A small number of troops were to be landed first 
to " cover " the landing of the other troops — that is, they 
were to take as strong positions as possible and keep the 
enemy back while the other soldiers landed. At the same 
time fire from the battleships was to help them in the diflS.- 
cult task. 

It was between four and five o'clock, and not yet day, 
when the boats containing the " covering forces " drew near 
the shore. The enemy became aware of their approach, 
and at ten minutes to five an alarm signal was flashed out. 
The boats were fired upon before they reached the shore, 
but the men pressed on, to find that the shore was entrenched. 
They did not wait to load their guns and fire, but rushed 
forward with their bayonets. The Turks were overcome, and 
the trenches taken. The men now advanced across the 
shore to find a new row of trenches among the low bushes on 
the cliffs rising slowly from the shore. 

In the darkness the landing had been made a little to the 
north of the right spot, where there were no cliffs. But the 



THE DARDANELLES 63 

Australians and New Zealanders were not the least bit dis- 
couraged. They cleared the second row of trenches as 
easily as they had done the first. But when daylight came 
many Turkish snipers crawled through the bushes and shot 
on the troops as they landed. Then guns from Gaba Tepe 
" enfiladed " the beach — that is, poured a fire from the side 
along it. These guns were at length silenced by fire from 
the warships. 

The covering forces on the top of the cliff suffered a great 
deal during the day. It was difficult to get food to them or 
to attend to their wounded, but they were as cheerful as 
ever. If the colonial troops have any fault at all it is that 
they are almost too anxious to take risks and do things which 
better-disciplined British troops would think it almost foolish 
to attempt. Even on this day some of the troops, anxious 
to advance, had gone too far from the shore and had been 
almost surrounded by the enemy. But no better men could 
have been chosen for the great work they were doing. 

The next two days the men ** dug themselves " well in, 
but Turkish reinforcements and guns had been brought up 
in great numbers, and they poured fire upon the colonials. 
But the warships from the sea in their turn rained shrapnel 
on the Turks. For two hours this went on, and then the 
men burst from the trenches with a cheer, and the Turks 
ran before them. In some parts of the line they fell into 
confusion, but still firing was kept up all day. 

The Turks tried shooting at the crowds of small boats 
on the sea carrying reinforcements and provisions to the men 
on shore. The young officers, often mere midshipmen, in 
the boats did not seem to mind a bit, and the men from the 
trenches were so anxious not to miss their daily baths that 
they took them in the sea, often with the shrapnel falling 
round them. One or two Turkish warships tried to help by 
firing from the Straits across the peninsula, but they were 
driven off by the guns from the British warships. By the 
morning of the 28th April the troops were so strongly en- 



64 THE WAR, 191 5 

trenched that there was no chance of the Turks driving 
them away. 

On the same Sunday morning that the first troops landed 
at Gaba Tepe, another small force landed in Morto Bay. 
The way was prepared by a bombardment from the warships, 
and the troops easily captured the first row of trenches by a 
bayonet charge. The Turks who were not killed or wounded 
simply ran away. The hill above the eastern side of the bay 
was occupied in less than three hours. 

But the troops who were trying to land at Sedd-el-Bahr 
had a much more difficult task to perform. It was naturally 
a difficult place to take, sloping upwards to a ridge. To the 
right was a steep cliif, to the left a fort. On the shore barbed 
wire defences had been drawn up, and trenches had been 
made on the ridge. In order to prevent the troops being 
fired on as they landed, a large liner, the River Clyde , contain- 
ing the landing party, was run up on the beach. Doors had 
been cut in the side of the vessel to allow the troops to land 
easily. But when the first men landed and ran for shelter 
to a sandbank, the fire was so heavy that the officer in com- 
mand decided to keep the other troops in the ship until it 
was dark. This was done, and the rest of the men were got 
safely out without a single one being killed or wounded. 

While the landing had been going on, another covering 
force which had landed at Cape Helles, to the west of Sedd- 
el-Bahr, rushed forward across the beach, breaking down the 
wire entanglements, and secured a footing at the point of 
the bayonet on the ridge overlooking Sedd-el-Bahr. Here 
they remained to cover the landing of the rest of their force. 
They had no artillery, but when the Turks attacked them 
they drove them off, and the rest of the force landed after 
dark quite safely. 

The next day they advanced towards Sedd-el-Bahr, and by 
the afternoon had joined forces with the troops who had landed 
at Morto Bay. They seized Sedd-el-Bahr, and now at this 
point too there was no chance of the Turks driving them away. 



THE DARDANELLES 65 

The south-western part of the Gallipoli peninsula was 
now strongly held by the Allies. The taking of it had been a 
splendid piece of work. It would probably have been im- 
possible but for the splendid and continual firing of the 
guns from the warships. 

Meanwhile a regiment of French soldiers had been landed 
at Kum Kaleh, they too being protected by the guns from 
British and French warships. They took Kum Kaleh, and 
marched along the coast to Yeni Shehr. All the way they had 
to fight against much greater numbers than themselves, but 
they killed and wounded many Turks and took 500 prisoners. 

By the end of April the Allied line stretched right across 
the southern end of the peninsula, with its flanks protected 
by the warships. The Australians and New Zealanders were 
also strongly entrenched north of the Narrows. A great work 
had yet to be done in pushing the advance so as to get pos- 
session of the whole peninsula, but a splendid beginning had 
been made. 

The Allied troops had lost many men in killed and 
wounded, and the brave Australians and New Zealanders 
especially had suffered, but the Turks lost many more. 
The Turkish newspapers confessed that 10,000 Turks had 
been killed and wounded and 3000 prisoners taken in the 
fighting at Sedd-el-Bahr ; and, as the Turks always tell the 
best story they can for themselves, we may be sure that 
there were many more. It was estimated that by the end of 
the third week of May tlie Turks had lost altogether 55,000 
men in killed and wounded. 

One very fine thing in the struggle for the Dardanelles 
was the way in which the Allies worked together, the French 
troops helping loyally to carry out the splendid plan of Sir 
Ian Hamilton. The Russians, too, had done their part. 
Their warships had from time to time bombarded the Turkish 
forts on the Bosporus from the Black Sea. They had also 
bombarded ports on the Black Sea where the Turks stored 
up their coal. Early in April, too, they had an exciting 



66 THE WAR, 191 5 

chase after the Breslau and Goehen^ which had after all been 
able to put to sea again. On the same day the Turkish 
cruiser Medjidieh struck a mine in the Gulf of Odessa and 
sank. 

In April, too, the British fleet suffered a loss when the 
submarine E15 ran ashore near Kephez Point. The crew 
were taken prisoners, but British sailors would not stand by 
and see the submarine taken by the enemy. It was blown 
up by men who approached the shore under fire from the 
Turkish guns to perform this feat. 

The submarine E14 did splendid work in Turkish waters 
at this time. On the 3rd May she sank a Turkish gunboat 
in the Sea of Marmora, and ten days later drove a steamer 
ashore near Rodosto. The submarine Eii also found its 
way into the Sea of Marmora and attacked Turkish ships near 
the Arsenal at Constantinople towards the end of May. 

Meanwhile the shelling of the forts and mine-sweeping 
still went on in the Straits, but the important part of the 
struggle for the Dardanelles was now being done by the brave 
British and French troops, who were fighting their way 
forwards with the greatest courage, but unfortunately, too, 
with heavy loss. The Turks were very strongly entrenched, 
and had profited immensely by the advice and help of their 
German allies. The numbers of British killed and wounded 
in Gallipoli during May were much larger than they had been 
in any equal time on the western front. The progress was 
slow. After a fierce battle of three days, from the 6th to the 
8th May, in which the British were trying to get possession 
of Krithia, the report was that a slight gain of ground had 
been made. 

But if progress was slow it was sure, and if many men 
laid down their lives in the struggle they knew that here, at 
the Dardanelles, the gain of ground for which they were fight- 
ing was of the greatest importance. The winning of the 
Dardanelles would be a turning-point in the war. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE WAR OF THE SUBMARINES 

We all know how the Germans tried to harm British trade 

by sending battleships to attack British ships on the high 

seas. We know, too, how practically all these German ships 

were destroyed or shut up in safe places within a very few 

months. For the most part the ships of the German navy 

kept well within their harbours. Then in November some 

of them slipped out, rushed across to bombard unfortified 

places on the East Coast, and ran back again to harbour. 

They had prepared mine-fields against any ships of the British 

fleet which should chase them, and dropped mines in the 

water as they fled. The British Admiral had not been taken 

by surprise. He had expected raids on the East Coast, and 

a mine-field had been prepared in front of Yarmouth harbour, 

which kept the enemy's ships off so far that their shells were 

not really able to injure the town. British cruisers were 

ready, too, to close in on the raiders from two sides, but 

they had very bad luck. A sudden mist hid the German 

vessels as they fled away, and it was impossible to find the 

range to shoot at them. One of the British submarines, D5, 

was struck and sunk by a mine, but the Germans themselves 

suffered a worse thing. One of their great armoured cruisers, 

the Yorckf a sister ship to the Scharnhorst and GneisenaUy 

struck one of their own mines and sank just at the entrance 

to Jahde Bay. Only 127 men out of 629 were saved, and 

great inconvenience was caused to the Germans through the 

blocking of the harbour by the sunken ship. 

Then, again, in December the Germans sent out a much 

stronger expedition, and the terrible raid on Scarborough 

67 



68 THE WAR, 191 5 

and the Hartlepools was made. Sir John Jellicoe had been 
waiting for this. Two battle squadrons immediately put 
out to sea, and at a point of the British coast far to the north 
eight British super-Dreadnoughts got ready to bear down 
on the raiders. The whole thing was splendidly planned. 
Admiral Jellicoe had arranged that the wireless messages 
from ship to ship should be made in a very difficult 
code, so that no spies could pick them up and warn the 
Germans. If things had gone as they were expected, not 
one German ship would have got away. 

But again the British had the worst possible luck. Another 
heavy fog came down, and the enemy escaped after doing 
their dreadful work. The fog came down just at the very 
moment when the British ships had taken the range and were 
preparing to open fire. The Germans saw the British ships, 
and, fearing to be hit, even in the fog, changed their course. 
The battle cruiser Von der Tann ran into the light cruiser 
the Frauenloh. Both were damaged but able to put into 
port. So even now the Germans did not escape some 
punishment, but it must have been a terrible disappointment 
to Sir John Jellicoe, who had planned all so well. It is 
reported of him that he never once made the slightest mis- 
take in the manoeuvres which the fleet practises regularly 
in time of peace. The sudden fog was a misfortune against 
which no one could provide. 

But Sir John was to have his triumph yet, and to give 
the Germans a lesson which put an end to the raids of their 
battleships on the East Coast. On Sunday, the 24th 
January, there was fought between the finest ships of both 
navies " the Battle of the Dogger Bank." It was on the 
evening of the 23rd January that the four battle cruisers, 
which were all that were now left of fast boats to the German 
fleet, came out from the Bight of Heligoland into the North 
Sea. It is supposed that Admiral Hipper, who was in com- 
mand, meant to engage in fight the British North Sea 
Squadron with some of his cruisers, while one or two of the 



THE WAR OF THE SUBMARINES 69 

fastest cruisers went north to get out on the high seas to 
begin again their destructive work on the trade routes. 
There was only one German cruiser left on the high seas 
now, the Dresden^ which escaped from the battle of the 
Falklands, and it was sunk by the Glasgow, Kent, and Orana 
on 14th March. The four big cruisers were the Seydlitz, 
on which Admiral Hipper flew his flag, the Derfflinger, the 
Moltke, and the Blilcher. The first three had smaller guns 
than the British cruisers, and the Bliicher, which had been 
built to imitate British vessels of the Dreadnought type, 
was not able to steam very quickly. Germany began to build 
this boat in 1906, when she heard that Great Britain was 
going to build the Invincible. But the details of the build- 
ing of the Invincible were kept secret, and, when the Bliicher 
was finished in 1909, the Invincible and two other cruisers 
of the new type were already on the seas. Not only could 
they go two and a half miles an hour faster than the Blilcher y 
but they were built to carry heavy guns. They were not cruisers 
of the old sort, but " racing battleships." The Germans had 
built faster cruisers since, but they did not carry such heavy 
guns as ours. Cruisers are especially useful in a *' running 
fight,'* and it was for a running fight, that Admiral Hipper 
was prepared. He had not expected to have five of the 
great British battle cruisers against him. 

But when the German cruisers stole quietly out of the 
Bight of Heligoland, with their flotilla of destroyers and six 
light cruisers to prepare the way and search out any British 
submarine which might be there ready to attack the cruisers, 
Admiral Sir David Beatty was also sailing out of a port in 
Scotland with five fine battle cruisers, four light cruisers, and 
a flotilla of destroyers, with the cruisers which go with them, 
the Arethusa, Aurora, and Undaunted. So well was the 
watch kept by the British navy on the doings of the Germans 
- that it seemed as though Sir John Jellicoe could not be taken 
by surprise. 

Sir David Beatty was on his flagship, the Lion, and the 



70 THE WAR, 191 5 

other cruisers were the Tiger, Princess Royal, New Zealand, 
and Indomitable. 

It was seven o'clock on Sunday morning when the Aurora 
caught sight of the German ships, about fourteen miles away, 
near the Dogger Bank. The Aurora immediately began to 
fire, and sent a wireless message to inform Sir David Beatty 
of the fact. As soon as the Germans knew that they had 
been sighted, they turned round and steamed as quickly 
as they could to the south-east. As fast as they could the 
British battle cruisers got up steam, and steered south-east 
too. The light cruisers kept the German ships in sight, 
and sent continual wireless messages to Sir David Beatty, 
informing him of their movements. 

As the German ships fled, they dropped mines behind 
them, but Sir David Beatty ordered his ships to chase them, 
not in the same line, but in a parallel line at least six miles 
distant. The big British battle cruisers were now going at 
a speed of thirty-two miles an hour, which was quite easy 
for three of them, but rather difficult for the Nezv Zealand, 
and very hard indeed for the Indomitable, an older and slower 
ship. In a battle of this sort the fighting ships must keep 
together, and the stokers in the Indomitable worked at an 
immense speed to send the ship along at a much faster rate 
than usual. They were rewarded when, in the middle of 
the chase, Admiral Beatty signalled the message : " Well 
done, Indomitable stokers ! " 

In less than an hour and a half the British ships had got 
within twelve miles of the hindermost German ship. The 
Lion fired a single shot at this point, but it fell short. 

At a few minutes past nine the ships were ten miles 
apart, and the Lion fired a shot which struck the last ship, 
the slow-going Bliicher. The shell, which weighed half a 
ton, and went through the air at the rate of a mile in two 
seconds, tore open the armour plate of the Bliicher. In a 
few minutes more the Tiger was also near enough to shell 
the BUicher, and the Lion then began to fire on the Derringer, 



THE WAR OF THE SUBMARINES 71 

and struck her over and over again. The splendid 13.5-inch 
guns of the British ship worked with the greatest correct- 
ness, and the gunners used them as coolly and accurately 
as though they were merely practising. The Lion, Tiger, 
and Princess Royal did the greatest part in the firing with 
their twelve great guns. Each fired in turn at the Blucher, 
and then, as she fell behind, they passed her and turned 
their fire on the other three ships. The Seydlitz and the 
Derfflinger were both badly damaged, but the Moltke not so 
much, as she was protected by a haze of smoke. Smoke 
is the worst thing a gunner has to face in settling the direc- 
tion of his target. 

The British destroyers had kept well to the left of the 
cruisers for this reason, but at nearly ten o'clock the German 
destroyers were sent towards the British ships, and then a 
division of British destroyers, led by the Meteor, steamed to 
keep them off. The Meteor was then in the midst of the 
fight. Shells fell all round her, yet for two hours she stayed 
in this dangerous position without being struck. 

Then about mid-day the Meteor steamed closer to the 
Bliicher, meaning to torpedo her. The Blilcher had now no 
chance of escape. She was burning fiercely in the middle. 
The New Zealand and the Indomitable turned their guns upon 
her to finish what the larger guns of the newer cruisers had 
begun. Then with her last shot she struck the Meteor, 
killing four men and wounding a fifth. Immediately after 
both the Meteor and the Arethusa fired torpedoes. Probably 
both struck her. The German crew lined up to go down 
with the ship, but an officer on the Arethusa called to them 
through a megaphone to jump into the water. They stood 
and cheered as the ship went down, and then dived into the 
water. The Bliicher turned right over, floated some time, 
and then sank slowly. The British saved 125 of the Germans, 
and would have saved more but that a Zeppelin and a German 
aeroplane appeared above the spot and dropped bombs upon 
the drowning men and their rescuers. It is supposed that 
III F 



72 THE WAR, 191 5 

they thought that it was a British ship which had been sunk. 
But even so it was a terrible thing to drop bombs on the 
drowning men. 

Meanwhile the German destroyers got between the 
German and British cruisers to protect the Germans by their 
smoke, and under cover of this Admiral Hipper turned his 
ships northwards. But Sir David Beatty saw the change at 
once, and changed the direction of his own ships. Then 
the German destroyers were ordered to close in and make a 
torpedo attack on the two front British cruisers. But a 
destroyer attack is of very little use except in darkness or 
half-light, and the big British guns soon drove them off. 

Then it was seen that German submarines were approach- 
ing the British cruisers from the right. Sir David Beatty 
himself saw one approaching the Lioriy and made the ship 
swerve to avoid it. The danger from the submarines was 
not very great, as the cruisers were moving at so great a rate, 
and the water was so calm that the periscopes could be easily 
seen. 

It seemed as though all the enemy's ships would certainly 
be destroyed, but, unfortunately, at about eleven o'clock the 
Lion^ which had had already many shots on her armour 
without being damaged, got a chance blow in the bow 
as it rose high out of the water through the great speed at 
which she was going. The feed tank was struck, and one 
engine stopped. It was only a small injury, but it reduced 
the speed, and the Lion had to fall out of the fighting-line. 

Sir David Beatty immediately transferred his flag to one 
of the destroyers, and prepared to go on to the Princess Royal. 
But this took some time, and in this time Sir Archibald Moore, 
who was next in command, broke off the fight. 

The reason for this has not been told, but it has been said 
that the battle of the Dogger Bank had been prepared by the 
Germans to lead the British ships into a trap, and that 
Admiral Ingenohl was waiting with his battleships to close 
jn on them from the east. It may have been information 



THE WAR OF THE SUBMARINES 73 

of this sort which caused Sir Archibald Moore to let the 
German cruisers go home without destroying them. This 
would also account for the fact that Admiral Hipper had 
made no real attempt to fight, but had simply run away, firing 
at a range which, with his smaller guns, could not do any 
real damage to the British ships. 

It was reported afterwards that one of the three ships 
was badly damaged and probably made useless, but that the 
other two could be repaired. The Lion was towed safely 
to port by the Indomitable, and was easily repaired. The 
battle of the Dogger Bank was another lesson to the Germans 
of the strength of the British navy, and it seemed as though 
it was this victory which made them take a serious resolution, 
which they announced a few days later, to use their sub- 
marines in a way which was really piracy. If they were 
always to be beaten when they fought the British on the seas, 
they would at least do their worst against them under the 
waters. 

Except for her trade with Germany, which was, of course, 
stopped. Great Britain could trade as freely as ever with other 
lands. But it was quite different with Germany. It has 
been always understood that when two nations are at war 
they may, if they are able, prevent certain things from being 
carried into the enemy's country. 

There have been many meetings between representatives 
of the great States of Europe in the past to settle the rules 
about trading with countries while they were at war. But 
they have disagreed a great deal about these rules. Natur- 
ally Great Britain, which is the strongest Power of all on the 
seas, would not agree to rules which would almost have 
prevented her fleet being used except for actual fighting. 

In 1909 the European Powers met and agreed on certain 
rules which were called the Declaration of London. But 
Great Britain would not agree to them, and so they never 
really became part of international law. It is, of course, 
always understood that the ships of the countries at war may 



74 THE WAR, 19 15 

seize each other. A ship captured in this way becomes the 
property of the Government, and its cargo is sold and the 
money taken by the Government. But the difficulty begins 
when ships of neutral countries, or countries not taking part 
in the war, are stopped by the ships of the belligerents or 
countries taking part in the war. 

Everybody agrees that a country may prevent certain 
articles being taken to the lands with which it is at war. 
These articles are called contraband of war, and are things 
which are used chiefly for the actual war. Such things as 
ammunition or guns are, of course, plainly contraband of 
war. 

Then there are articles which the Declaration of London 
put on the '' free list." Among these were such things as 
cotton and other materials used to make cloth, &c. Accord- 
ing to the Declaration of London ships carrying these things 
were not to be stopped unless they were going to ports against 
which a blockade was declared. A blockade is established 
when one country declares that it will not allow any ships 
at all to enter the enemy's ports. Great Britain could have 
declared a blockade of the German ports at the beginning 
of the war, but for various reasons did not. 

Then there were articles described as *' conditional con- 
traband," which might or might not be useful to the army 
of the enemy. Ships carrying these things could only be 
stopped, according to the Declaration of London, if they 
were being sent to certain places or people which made it 
certain that they were going to be used by the enemy's army 
or Government. 

Now, according to these rules, Germany would have been 
able to get almost anything she wanted by train through 
Holland, whereas England, being an island, which depends 
so much on the things which come to her in ships, would 
have been put at a great disadvantage. 

However, at the beginning of the war Great Britain and 
France declared that they were going to take no notice of the 



.^ 



THE WAR OF THE SUBMARINES 75 

Declaration of London^ but would observe the provisions of 
an earlier agreement known as the Declaration of Paris. 
They would, however, make certain changes even in this. 
Things were to be kept from passing into Germany for the 
use of her army, even through neutral ports ; and so neutral 
vessels carrying even articles on the " free list '^ could be 
searched, and if it was found that their cargo was going to 
pass through to Germany, they could be taken by the Allies. 

The country which suifered most from this was Holland, 
for three-quarters of the things which are taken from the 
ships at the great Dutch port of Rotterdam are, as a rule, 
sent on to Germany. Now all this trade was stopped, and 
many Dutchmen were thrown out of work. But the Dutch 
Government was very careful to see that Dutch neutrality 
was kept, and that things did not pass through Holland to 
Germany. 

The United States was the country which suffered most 
after Holland, and President Wilson complained to the 
British Government, at the end of 1914, of the harm done 
to American trade by the delay caused in the searching of 
American ships. He complained, too, that food stuffs and 
other things on the " free list " had been prevented from 
going into Germany. 

Sir Edward Grey, in a very careful answer, showed that 
the injury to American trade had not been so very great 
after all, and he declared also that in a country which had 
conscription, and practically all its men as soldiers, it was 
difficult to distinguish between the army and the civil popu- 
lation. This was quite true ; but in a way it meant that 
Great Britain was fighting against the civil population of 
Germany. One of the greatest wrongs which Germany had 
done during the war was to kill and injure non-combatants, 
and it seemed a pity to give the Germans the chance to say 
that the Allies were doing the same by *' starving " the 
Germans. 

Sir Edward Grey promised that he would allow American 



76 THE WAR, 191 5 

ships to pass on freely, if they showed a certificate from the 
United States Government saying where the ship was going 
and what cargo it carried. So Great Britain was able to 
keep things out of Germany and yet remain friendly with 
the neutral states. Of course it must be remembered that 
Germany grows and produces so many things herself that 
we could not really deprive her of the necessities of life. 

Still the Germans were terribly angry, and on the 4th 
February 19 15 they declared a " submarine blockade " against 
Great Britain. They would, they declared, try to destroy 
by submarines every enemy's ship sailing in the waters round 
Great Britain and Ireland. They would do this " even 
though the lives of crews and passengers should thereby be 
endangered." Before this war no one had ever thought it 
right to sink merchantmen (or ordinary trading or passenger 
vessels), even after they had searched them. If a vessel was 
found to be an enemy vessel or a neutral ship carrying con- 
traband, the ship which captured it had to tow it into harbour, 
where a proper judge could say whether the ship was guilty 
or not. In this war, for the first time the custom had grown 
up of sinking such vessels if the ship which captured them 
could not go safely into port. But always before the ships 
were sunk the crews and passengers were taken safely off. 

But before this famous proclamation of the submarine 
blockade in February 191 5, ships at sea taken in this way 
had never been attacked except by gunfire, and they had 
always been warned first. Now submarine warfare is quite 
different. The submarine approaches its victim silently 
and unseen, and launches its torpedo, which, if it does not 
miss fire altogether, almost certainly blows the ship up. 
In most cases no warning can be given (or the ship would 
immediately get out of the way of the submarine), and all 
the people in the ship will be drowned, unless they are picked 
up after the explosion. The submarine has no room to take 
on the people from another vessel, and the best it can do 
is to warn them to get into their lifeboats before the ship is 



THE WAR OF THE SUBMARINES 77 

blown up. The Germans in any case never showed them- 
selves generous in picking up the drowning people from 
the ships they had destroyed. 

The submarine blockade which they now threatened was 
nothing else but murder. All the world was horrified by it, 
and even more so because the German proclamation warned 
neutral countries that their ships also would be in danger 
in the seas round Britain. This meant that the German 
submarines would if they could sink all vessels coming to 
Great Britain. There was to be no search and no warning. 

If they really could have done all that they threatened, 
Great Britain would have had to go without all sorts of things, 
for she of course depends more than any country in the 
world on food stuffs brought from her colonies and abroad. 

Ever since Germany found that she could not build big 
battleships as quickly as Great Britain, she had made up her 
mind to build submarines as fast as she could and attack 
Britain's big ships with these. Many people even in Eng- 
land thought that there was very little use in building battle- 
ships which could be destroyed by one torpedo from a 
submarine. But the submarine, after all, is of no use except 
under the sea. It must come up for air after a time. Its 
torpedoes must miss any vessel going at a great speed, while 
the submarine itself is very delicate and fragile. If an 
ordinary ship rams it, it breaks like a shell. 

So, after all, the " submarine blockade " could not do 
any really great harm to Great Britain. It was not really a 
" blockade " at all, for it did not prevent Great Britain getting 
her supplies from abroad as usual. By the end of May, 
after four months of the *' blockade," the submarines had 
only managed to strike fifty vessels out of the 30,000 
which sailed in and out of the British ports during that 
time. 

The Germans had hoped to frighten people terribly, but 
ships sailed the seas just as before. Still it caused a great 
deal of sorrow. Sometimes the crews of the ships were 



78 THE WAR, 191 5 

saved, but often they were not, and here again the Germans 
were bringing death to innocent people and non-combatants 
in the same cruel way they had done all through the 
war ever since the angry soldiers burst into Belgium, 
and killed men, women, and children without warning or 
mercy. 

The German submarines had already attacked merchant 
vessels and sunk them long before they declared their 
blockade, and for this reason many ships had flown the flags of 
neutral countries instead of their own. This is an old trick, 
and many ships have saved themselves in past wars by it. 
But the British Admiralty, or department of government 
which has to look after naval aff'airs, had itself by wireless 
messages told some British ships to protect themselves by 
flying a neutral flag. Many people thought that Great 
Britain should have been too proud to play a trick like this, 
and the United States once more complained. The flying 
of the American flag by British ships might, they said, lead 
to American ships being attacked by the Germans. This 
was, indeed, one reason which Germany gave for attacking 
even neutral vessels in her new " blockade." The great 
British liner the Lusitaniay one of the biggest ships ever 
built, and which was used to carry passengers between 
Liverpool and New York, had sailed into Liverpool from 
New York flying the American flag. The Liisitania was later 
to be the chief victim of the " blockade." 

The date fixed for the beginning of the *' submarine war " 
was the i8th February. It made very little difference, if 
any, to the sailing of British ships, but a shipping newspaper 
offered a prize of ^£500 to the first British merchant ship 
which should sink a German submarine. This prize was 
won by a small steamer called the ThordiSy which was the first 
to sink a German submarine on the 28th February. The 
Thordis was attacked by the submarine near Beachy Head. 
The captain saw it some yards away, and in a few minutes 
saw a track through the waves like a *' long feathery arrow." 



THE WAR OF THE SUBMARINES 79 

It was the track made by a torpedo aimed at the boat by the 
submarine. But the torpedo missed its mark, for the sea 
was rough at the time, and as the little vessel was pitched 
upwards by the waves the torpedo passed underneath her. 
The brave and clever captain of the Thordis did not wait for 
a second torpedo, but immediately steamed straight towards 
the submarine to ram her. There was a crash, a scraping 
noise, and the submarine had disappeared. In a short time 
the water near the spot was covered with oil, which had pro- 
bably risen to the surface from the broken tanks of the 
wrecked submarine. There can be no doubt that the Thordis 
had sunk the submarine, and in due course the captain 
received his prize. 

One or two other vessels have since claimed to have sunk 
German submarines, and many steamers have at least very 
cleverly escaped from their attackers. Some simpl}^ steamed 
away at full speed, and so escaped. Others steamed along in 
a zigzag manner, so that the submarines could not see where 
to aim their torpedoes. 

The submarines attacked neutral vessels as they had 
threatened to do, but in most cases the people on board these 
vessels were given time to get off safely, while this was often 
not done with British ships. One very cruel case was the 
sinking on the 28th March of the Falaba^ a fairly large pas- 
senger ship belonging to Liverpool owners. The Falaba 
was carrying 160 passengers when a German submarine 
came up to her, and gave warning that it was going to sink 
her. The crew were allowed five minutes to get out the 
boats and get the passengers and themselves into them. It 
was quite impossible to do this in the time, and in the hurry 
an accident happened to one of the boats. The torpedo 
was fired while most of the passengers were still on the ship, 
although there was a trawler near which would have come 
up to take the passengers off if it had been allowed to do so. 
It was said that the German sailors laughed and mocked at 
the drowning people. 



8o THE WAR, 1915 

Sometimes the captain of a submarine would behave 
quite well. For instance, the captain of the U29, a very 
big submarine, behaved just like a British captain might 
have been expected to do. The U29, before it sank the 
Adenwen near the Scilly Isles, gave the crew ten minutes to 
launch the lifeboats. The captain of the Adenwen had asked 
him to spare the ship, but he replied that " war was war,'* 
and he could not. " But," he said, " we wish that no lives 
should be lost." Plenty of time was given to the crew, and 
when one sailor either fell or jumped overboard the captain 
of the U29 sent him a dry suit of clothes. Though they 
took the flags of the Adenwen as souvenirs before they sank 
her, they were careful to ask if the sailors had enough food, 
and they towed the lifeboats until they met a Norwegian 
steamer which took charge of them, and said good-bye at 
last, leaving a present of cigars. This story made people 
rather sorry that the U29 was one of the submarines sunk 
by the British cruisers and destroyers. It was sunk on the 
25th March. 

A fairly large number were destroyed in this way during 
the first four months of the blockade, and so the German 
navy suffered a loss much greater in proportion than they 
caused to Great Britain by the sinking of her ships. The 
chief result of her " blockade," besides the murder of inno- 
cent people, was the disgrace it brought upon Germany, not 
only with the Allies, but in neutral countries. 

Early in March, when the German submarine the U8 
was sunk off Dover after being chased by twelve destroyers, 
it was decided by the Admiralty that her twenty-nine officers 
and men who were saved could not be allowed honourable 
treatment or to mingle with other prisoners of war, as the 
submarine had probably been guilty of sinking unarmed 
ships. The Germans replied by taking an equal number 
of British officers who were prisoners, and giving them very 
harsh treatment. Many people thought it was a mistake of 
the British Admiralty to treat the submarine officers and men 



THE WAR OF THE SUBMARINES 8i 

in this way, and when in May a new Government was formed 
in England the plan wa3 given up. This new Government 
was a " coalition Government," that is to say that the chief 
positions in the Government were divided between Liberals 
and Conservatives, and so the Government had the services 
of the cleverest men in both parties. Mr. Balfour, the 
great Conservative statesman, became First Lord of the 
Admiralty, and he immediately gave up the policy of 
special treatment of the submarine prisoners. Soon after 
the Germans also gave up their special treatment of the 
British officers. 

It must be remembered that the British felt particularly 
angry against the German submarines because, besides 
sinking big ships, they also sank many trawlers, especially 
in the North Sea. Some of these may have been engaged 
in *' mine-sweeping," to free the seas from the mines which 
the Geimans still strewed when they got a chance. But 
most of them contained fishermen, who were brave enough 
to go out to fish in spite of the danger, and many of these 
were drowned. Sometimes as many as seventeen trawlers 
were sunk in one week. 

The sinking of the Liisitania on the 7th May caused even 
greater horror than the slaughter of the people of Lou vain 
in August. Before the Lusitania sailed, a warning was 
printed in the American newspapers telling Americans that 
the Germans meant to torpedo her. No one took any notice. 
People thought that the Germans were only boasting, and in 
any case that they would never be able to torpedo a fast- 
going vessel like the Lusitania. The ship was really a great 
floating hotel, with splendid baths and saloons and even 
gardens on board. She was one of the most luxurious ships 
ever built. There were 2160 people on board when she sailed 
on what was to be her last voyage. Even at the last moment 
some people, like the millionaire passenger Mr. A. Vander- 
bilt, received telegrams advising them not to sail. But 
again no notice was taken. The voyage was very good and 



82 THE WAR, 1915 

quick until the great ship sailed into the seas to the North 
of Ireland. Here was where the danger began, and it seems 
a great pity that the same high speed was not kept up, as in 
this case a torpedo would almost surely have missed her. 
Instead of this the ship slowed down a little, probably because 
the captain wished to arrive in port at Liverpool by daylight 
instead of at night, as he would have done if the same speed 
had been kept up. Many people wondered afterwards why 
the Lusitania did not change her course, and put into port 
at Glasgow, as the Transylvania^ another vessel which had 
been threatened, did a week or two later. 

In the middle of the day on the 7th March, while most 
of the passengers were at luncheon, the Lusitania suddenly 
received a shock. It was the threatened torpedo which had 
come after all. Not the slightest warning had been given, 
and even now many of the passengers did not think there 
was real danger. Almost immediately there was another 
shock, either through the explosion of machinery in the 
ship or through the firing of another torpedo. The crew 
began to get out the lifeboats, but the ship had been struck 
in a vital spot, and heeled over at a great angle with her 
bow in the water. It was difficult to launch the lifeboats 
under these circumstances, and there was not much time, 
for in twenty minutes from the time when the first shock 
had been felt the great ship sank. In that short time brave 
men had worked hard getting women and children into the 
boats which could be launched, and tying lifebelts on some 
of the others, but not much could be done. Several trawlers 
came up to pick up the people struggling in the water. Some 
were saved, but altogether 1300 people, chiefly women and 
children, were drowned. There were many distinguished 
people among the dead — actors, writers, and preachers. The 
news of the horrible deed travelled through the world, and 
people were angrier than ever against the Germans. There 
were many Americans on the Lusitania ^ and the President 
of the United States, Doctor Woodrow Wilson, asked for an 



THE WAR OF THE SUBMARINES 83 

explanation. The answer was that the Ltisitania was carry- 
ing ammunition, but this was quite untrue. Some people 
hoped that America would be neutral no longer, and would 
join in the war on the side of the Allies. But America hates 
war, and was patient still in spite of much irritation, and 
almost insult, from Germany since the beginning of the 
war. President Wilson himself is a great lover of peace, 
but there were signs at the end of May that even his patience 
was almost at an end, and in the second week in June 
Mr. Bryan, the Secretary of State, resigned because he 
thought that a note sent to Germany by the President would 
probably bring about war. 

Meanwhile another neutral state, Italy, had joined in the 
war on the side of the Allies. It will be remembered that 
Italy was a member of the " Triple Alliance,'* and, if 
Germany had been waging a just war, Italy ought to, and 
would, have fought on her side. But when Germany began 
a war of aggression Italy did not feel bound to help her. 
The Italian people had never been really in favour of the 
Triple Alliance, and from the beginning of the war the nation 
was in favour of the Allies, and anxious to join in the war 
on their side. The Italians have always hated the Austrians, 
who for hundreds of years ruled a great part of Northern 
Italy as though it was their own. Even now large districts 
to the north and east of Italy, which are really Italian, 
are ruled by the Austrians. The Italian people were anxious 
to join in the war and win these back. They were anxious 
to join in, too, not only because they hated the Austrians, 
but because they really sympathized with the Allies in 
fighting against such a cruel and unfair enemy as Germany 
had shown herself to be. I'he sinking of the Ltisitania 
made the Italian people as indignant as even the British 
could be. The great meetings which had been held all over 
Italy since the beginning of the war, in which the speakers 
and the crowds declared that Italy should join in the war, 
grew larger and more numerous. The Government, which 



84 THE WAR, 191 5 

had been in favour of peace, and had kept it so long in spite 
of the wish of the people, resigned, and on the 23rd May 
Italy declared war on Austria. Everyone in Italy was 
enthusiastic. The King seemed strongly in favour of the 
war. The new Pope, Benedict XV, showed himself to be 
keenly patriotic, and sent his blessing to the army. His 
brother is an admiral in the Italian navy, and the Pope is 
thoroughly Italian. In the Italian colony in London, known 
sometimes as " Little Italy," there was great excitement. 
The men of military age crowded to the railway stations to 
take tickets for Italy and the front, and the Italian women 
said their *' Good-byes " bravely. So another nation had 
come to the help of the Allies, and the time of victory was 
brought nearer. When Italy joined in the war a new period 
began, and many people hoped that the terrible struggle was 
nearly over. 

But though people had suffered so much from the war, 
there was still the same determination to carry it through. 
Never before has the moral sense of the world been all on one 
side in any war. But by the middle of 191 5 there was no 
nation which would raise its voice to justify the cause of 
Germany. When, in May, the King gave the order that the 
names of the German Emperor and his allies should be 
struck off the roll of the Knights of the Order of the Garter, 
everyone felt that this was right. Such names had no place 
in any roll of honour. The flags of the degraded Knights 
were quietly removed from the Henry VII Chapel in West- 
minster Abbey, where they had hung. 

But even though people were weary of the war, they felt 
that it had roused the nations, as it were, to new life. Tales 
of heroism crowded in, of men who would not leave their 
guns, but fought to the death against fearful odds ; of airmen 
who, terribly wounded, insisted on fulfilling some important 
mission, only falling unconscious under the strain when their 
work was completed ; of the French priests, who had cheer- 
fully taken their place in the ranks of French soldiers, and 



THE WAR OF THE SUBMARINES 85 

did their work as priests and soldiers too, advancing time 
after time under the heaviest fire to minister to the wounded 
and the dying. 

And amidst all the stories of German cruelty there came 
others of the greatest courage and kindness on the part of 
individual Germans. " Eyewitness " tells of a German 
officer at Givenchy, who stopped to dig out a wounded 
British officer who was partly buried under stones from a 
trench which had been blown up, and gave him brandy from 
his own flask. He was full in the firing line while he did this, 
and was, unfortunately, killed by a British bullet which hit 
him by chance. 

And even the annals of the British navy can show no 
finer story than that of the landing-party of the crew of the 
Emden. It will be remembered how, when the Emden was 
forced to surrender off Cocos Island, there were on shore 
forty-three men, who, instead of surrendering with the others, 
seized a schooner, the Ayesha^ and sailed off in her. The 
Ayesha was a leaky boat, and the pumps had to be worked 
constantly, but the undaunted crew sailed off in her to Padang, 
830 miles away on the coast of Sumatra, where she laid in 
stores and then sailed off across the Indian Ocean for Arabia, 
meaning to join on to the Turkish allies of Germany. They 
arrived on the Red Sea coast near Hodeida on the 27th 
March, and no one can deny that they had performed a 
wonderful feat of daring and skill. 

In the splendid deeds of heroism which the war has 
brought forth, and in the hope of a lasting peace which the 
war shall bring, lies the only consolation for the sacrifice 
of so many brave and strong men and for the sorrow of so many 
women and children. 

A French officer, writing his last letter home as he lay 
dying, told how, when he became conscious after being 
wounded, he found a Scottish officer and a German soldier 
both wounded, trying to bind up his wounds. As all three 
lay dying, they talked of the old days before the war and 



86 THE WAR, 1915 

of those they had left at home, and the Frenchman, as he 
watched the others, wondered " why they had fought each 
other at all." Then he thought of " the Tricolour of France 
and all that France had done for liberty." And then he 
realized what they were fighting for. " He " (the German) 
" was dying in vain, while the Britisher and myself by our 
deaths would probably contribute something towards the 
cause of civilization and peace." 



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